While we heard a lot about it at the time of his acquisition and in the preseason, there has been very little chatter about Courtney Lee's defense so far this season.
I thought last night, he was one of the silent keys to our victory. Jameer Nelson was on fire and then Courtney Lee came in to the game and absolutely shut him down. Lee's height advantage clearly bothered Nelson and made things difficult for him, while he was able to pick up Nelson 30 feet from the hoop, fight through picks, and is quick enough to not get beat on the drive. Lee was switched onto Afflalo and Redick for a few possessions too where I noticed they did nothing against him.
Despite Wade's final line of 10/22 for 29 points, I thought Lee did a very good job of defending Wade 1-1 on opening night. Wade torched a few players on our team that night, most noticeably to me was Jeff Green, but Lee was not one of them (except on that back door cut when Lee gambled for a blind side steal which I think will serve as a learning experience for a defensively intelligent player like Lee).
Lee has been getting thrown into a lot of trade ideas lately, and I understand we need to give up players and salary to get a player of need (like Gortat), but I think Lee could be a very valuable defensive player for us going forward if the celtics make a decision as a team to return to a defensive-oriented basketball team which we no longer are (gave up 100+ points in 4 straight games).
I very much appreciate what he brings to this team and thought I'd open this thread for discussion on him.