Magnolia guard Paul Lee.-PBA PHOTO
Paul Lee, arguably the player who will most benefit from the PBA’s new four-point line that will be implemented for the upcoming 49th season, is in no rush to hoist as many shots as he wants.
“I’ll just play basketball. If it’s there, it’s there,” said Lee, who could have a chance to become the first player to convert from that 27-foot distance with Magnolia scheduled to face Meralco in the opener of the season’s first conference, the Governors’ Cup, on Sunday.
The game is set at 7:30 p.m. and will cap off a busy day that will start with the Leo Awards and the opening ceremonies that will kick off the league’s 49th season—perhaps the most anticipated in recent years with the implementation of an additional arc, whose pros and cons have been discussed heavily on social media.
Other gunners have said the four-point shot is not a priority: NLEX’s Robert Bolick said he’s not going to force the shot into his game while San Miguel Beer’s Marcio Lassiter won’t rely on the new shot to fuel his chase for the three-point record.
“If the shot’s available, why not? But to look for it, to force it? There’s no way,” Bolick earlier said. “For me, I’m gonna stick to the three-point line first and try to get that taken care of,” Lassiter said. “It’s not gonna be easy, but I will focus on that first and I’ll venture out to that four-point land [later].”
PBA officials, in Wednesday’s press conference at Edsa Shangri-La, are banking on the new rule to inject some excitement into the league.
“They say that if you don’t innovate, you’ll die,” PBA chair Ricky Vargas said during the event attended by commissioner Willie Marcial and members of the Board of Governors. “That’s why we decided to innovate, with the fans in mind.”
Split into 2 groups
The Meralco-Magnolia faceoff sets off the first conference where the format will see the 12 teams being split into two groups to determine the teams that qualify for the crossover quarterfinals.
And to make sure that the preparation of Gilas Pilipinas for the second window of the Fiba (International Basketball Federation) Asia Cup Qualifiers in November is not disrupted, the PBA will hold games six days a week during the group phase that runs until late-September.
Three out-of-town dates have been slated on Aug. 24 in Candon, Ilocos Sur (Barangay Ginebra-Rain or Shine), Aug. 31 in Cagayan de Oro City (San Miguel Beer-NLEX) and Sept. 7 in Panabo, Davao (Meralco-Magnolia).
How much the four-point line is maximized will also be determined during that timeline, with Lee probably having the bulk of those attempts given his expertise in firing from deep.
“It will be beneficial because for guys like me who go for those shots as if it is normal; we will be rewarded with four points instead of three,” said Lee.
The opener puts Meralco in action for the first time since June, when it stunned San Miguel Beer in the Philippine Cup Finals to get the franchise’s first PBA championship.
Meralco is looking at another crown with Allen Durham, a three-time Best Import awardee, back after three years playing in Japan.
Magnolia has a high-profile import in former NBA veteran and 2017 Slam Dunk champion Glenn Robinson III.