A closer inspection: Big Game James versus the Lee-thal Weapon

Welcome to the operating room. You are about to read through a surgical dissection of James Yap of the B-MEG Llamados and Paul Lee of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, two superstars who embody the present and the future of the PBA. Both players are playing hurt midway through the 2012 Governors’ Cup Finals.  Yap is nursing back spasms while Lee is indefinitely sidelined with a re-aggravated shoulder injury. These are battle scars, injuries incurred not only as a testament of the league’s intense physicality, but also of both players’ courage, fighting through every game like warriors. Because true enough, not too long ago, that is exactly what they both were: Red Warriors. Two of UE’s finest Coming off a successful high school stint, Yap was torn on whether he should see action in the now-defunct MBA with the Negros Slashers or incubate his skills in the collegiate level. He had just finished leading Iloilo Central Commercial High School to three consecutive PRISAA titles. Jumping to the pros to play in front of his hometown would have been the sentimental choice. Instead, he opted to hone his talents further in the University of the East. Yap was impressive, scoring over 20 points a game on a wide array of jumpers, earning him 2003 UAAP MVP honors. He was a living, breathing enigma that opponents could not find an antidote for. Their only recourse was to put their hands to Yap’s face and hope that it was not his lucky day. Forming a stellar trio with Paul Artadi and Ronald Tubid, Yap made it look like the glory days that Robert Jaworski, Sr. once brought to UE were back. However, his hopes were crushed by the Ateneo Blue Eagles and the FEU Tamaraws in 2002 and 2003, two schools that had superior depth and a hint of luck on their side. Lee’s basketball background is movie plot material. The kid who grew up in the streets of Tondo did not get to play organized basketball until his senior year in high school with the San Sebastian Staglets. And even when he, together with Eric Salamat and Raffy Reyes, finished as champions that year, he nearly went unrecruited in college because scouts thought that he had not yet graduated, having only played a solitary season in the NCAA. But when he broke through to the collegiate UAAP scene, he made eyes turn, heads spin, and left ankles broken in his wake. Like Yap, Lee also became part of a formidable UE troika. This collaboration featured highflyer Elmer Espiritu and banger Pari Llagas alongside him. And like Yap, Lee also took home UAAP Mythical Five awards twice. The Red Warriors romped into the 2009 Finals but fell a game shy of winning the big prize, once again losing at the hands of the Blue Eagles. Lee stayed in 2010 with a depleted lineup, failing to lift the team by his lonesome. He decided to forego his fifth season and instead tested the waters of the PBA Draft. The Welcoat link The diagnosis is clear: Yap and Lee are both shot creators, groomed to be first options. They embraced the leadership role. The PBA was their oyster and it was a matter of getting the doubters to convert. Yap and Lee share another connection: Welcoat. Back in the heyday of the PBL, Yap saw action with the Welcoat Paintmasters for one conference, leading them all the way to a runner-up finish against future teammate Peter June Simon of Fash Liquid Detergent. Yap was brimming with skill, but the Shell Turbochargers had different plans in mind, going with a two-way talent in Rich Alvarez as the top pick during the 2004 PBA Draft. This move relegated Yap as the second pick to the Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs, who were looking for a new face to succeed the retiring Alvin “The Captain” Patrimonio. Yap immediately won the hearts of Purefoods diehards with his hero-ball approach, takeover mentality, and of course, his showbiz escapes on the side, a constant staple of hoops personalities. In 2006, the Welcoat Dragons acquired the franchise rights of Shell and debuted in the 2006-2007 season, where they unceremoniously finished last in the first four conferences of existence of the league. The name change to Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in 2008 boosted both morale and win-loss record. Though the team did not have any household names yet, TY Tang and Solomon Mercado made the Elasto Painters enjoyable to watch. A stroke of luck came Rain or Shine’s way when they managed to snag the second pick in the 2011 Draft, a draft class loaded with talent coming from the Smart Gilas national team. But the Elasto Painters found gold elsewhere. After the Powerade Tigers opted to go with deadeye shooter Jayvee Casio as the top pick, Lee fell right into Rain or Shine’s lap. It was an opportunity too good to pass up. Flanked with a reliable supporting cast in Jeff Chan, Gabe Norwood, and Jervy Cruz, Rain or Shine needed a focal point on offense, someone who could distribute the ball while not be shy to find his own shots as well. The numbers game With more experience under his belt, Yap easily trumps Lee’s professional track record in all aspects. Yap has three championships, two Finals MVPs, two regular season MVPs, an All-Star Game MVP, nine All-Star appearances, a scoring title, and a three-point shootout title, an impeccable resumé to say the least. What would be more appropriate would be to chart the career trajectories of both players based on their performances in their maiden season. Here are the rookie averages of both players. Try to guess who did what: Player A: 46 games, 27 minutes, 13.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists (34% 3pt, 47% FG, 83% FT) Player B: 63 games, 27 minutes, 12.4 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1 assist (28% 3pt, 39% FG, 78% FT) If you guessed that Yap is Player A, with more balanced statistics across the board, then apologies, but you are incorrect. Yap is actually Player B, the guy who only has one assist per game and shoots below average from downtown. Yap is a volume shooter, but it is not until you take a closer inspection on his career statistics where his streakiness is seen. When he is hot, Yap keeps the Llamados in tight ball games. When he is not, he clunks them right out of the mix. To further solidify this claim, Yap has topped  40% FG shooting only twice over eight seasons. Yap’s persistence to operate in the midrange is a byproduct of Coach Tim Cone’s triangle offense, but his inclination to ditch offensive sets altogether and enter into isolation mode is the gift and curse that B-MEG lives with from game to game. In stark contrast, Lee (Player A) has something going for him. Because of the effective long-range shooting of Chan and the midrange reliability of Norwood and Cruz, Lee weaves in and out of the lane with drive-and-kicks, forcing defenses into a spacing conundrum. Zoning up prevents Lee from easy layups but allows him to pair up his blinding speed and his excellent court vision to find the open man. Going man-to-man lets Lee pick his defender apart or lets him use hard screens set by Cruz or Beau Belga to find his way to the hoop. Lee is the epitome of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” Both players are average defenders, so steals and blocks do not factor into the equation. They are both not known for locking down the best player of the opposing squad as they conserve energy to do the damage on the offensive end instead. Statistics can give an insight but cannot give the complete story. Statistics can lie. They can be bloated and exaggerated to mask certain aspects of the game. In this case, Yap’s rookie season, while promising, was unjustifiably overhyped by the press. The intangible impact that Lee has delivered is slightly overlooked because playing on Rain or Shine does not give Lee a comparable fanbase who can appreciate what he has done in year one. Regardless, Lee’s presence has been felt right from day one, when he introduced himself to the league against crowd favorite Barangay Ginebra. One day, Lee might overtake Yap on the pantheon among the greatest PBA players of all time. But not now. Not yet. The grizzled veteran and the upstart rookie. Two players who roamed the walls of Mendiola half a decade apart. Two fiery guards burning nets one possession at a time. It is a shame that the remainder of the 2012 Governors’ Cup Finals will have an incomplete cast. While one is wreaking havoc, the other is recuperating in the whitewashed hospital walls wearing a shoulder cast. - AMD, GMA News Favian Pua is a contributor to Houston Rockets blog Red94.net of ESPN’s TrueHoop network, while maintaining his own site at all-timefave.blogspot.com