There is an unspoken truth in Lakerland, an implicit reality which most die-hard observes know but still goes unutterable amongst casual observers. It isn’t a sexy secret, or a startling TMZ-approved deadline. This unwritten truth may not be scandalous, but it does go a long way to explain what holds the defending NBA champions together at the seams.

That undeclared truth is that while Kobe Bryant may be the league’s MVP through a quarter of the season, he is not even the most important player in his own locker room. The most prized piece of the Laker juggernaut in fact hails from not from suburban Philadelphia, but from Sant Boi de Llobrega, Spain.

Pau Gasol is the most essential element to the Lakers’ dominance, and just might be the most under appreciated star in the NBA.

It is easy to understand how Gasol would be overshadowed: he isn’t flashy, is not particularly vocal, is happy to defer to teammates, and plays with arguably one of the best players of all-time. While those facts all hurt him in the eyes of a casual fan, they help support exactly the kind of playing pedigree that makes Gasol so invaluable.

Last season during the Lakers’ championship run, it was Gasol, not Bryant, who improved his year-to-year play in terms of Player Efficiency Rating (22.31 PER, up from a still very impressive 21.42 PER a year earlier). He did so while managing to shoot 56.7% from the floor with a Rebounding Rate of 14.7 per game. In more traditional terms, he averaged 18.9 points a game and hauled in 9.8 rebounds per contest, all while he dropped 3.5 assists each game.

While those sort of stats are All-Star caliber, they do not begin to express his importance to the Lakers in terms of timing and rhythm on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

Gasol possesses incredibly good hands and a skill-set that is matched by only by Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh in terms of players his size. While he is a legitimate seven-footer, he does not possess a bangers mentality. Instead, Gasol uses his footwork to seek out proper positioning in the block, then leverages his great reach and quick release to converts easy looks around the rim with scary efficiency.

Gaosl is particularly deadly from between 7-12 feet, which traditionally is the most difficult range for players to score from at a high percentage. In fact, the Spanish dynamo was third in the league in terms of effectiveness from 10 feet last season, converting nearly 50% of his looks from that range.

It is precisely this sort of unique touch front mid-to-long range two pointers that makes Gasol the key to the Lakers realizing their offensive potential. With his passing skills and ability to put the ball on the floor, Gasol is the ideal mid-post to plug into Tex Winter’s Trinagle offense – a system that demands its posts be able to operate from both high and low positions and be unselfish as the offense’s central hub.

If at this point it sounds like I am fawning, I need only point to Los Angeles record since he returned from injury nine games ago. Nine starts for Gasol, nine wins for the Lakers, including a victory Wednesday night in which they played hard for seemingly only 20 minutes and still utterly embarrassed Utah, holding them to just six fourth quarter points.

Which brings us to the real difference Gasol makes to the Lakers – defense. Specifically, it is the versatility and length he brings defensively that energizes his teammates. With a heathly Gasol in the mix, Bryant is freed to fly around the ball more and take more risks at steals, since he knows he has a second seven-footer behind him to contest any layups his man might attempt.

Also beneficial to the Los Angeles defensive attack is Gasol’s footwork. He is quick  and nimble enough to defend any screen-and-rolls combination, so that if necessary he can perform switches with Lamar Odom or Ron Artest to check their men 20 feet from the rim.

Yet as I mentioned in my opening, this reality that Gasol is maybe the game’s most versatile and multifaceted big man mostly goes unnoticed by freelancing NBA fans. Why is that?

The most likely theory is that Gasol’s quiet, humble, workman attitude does not stand out or command attention in a city that is teetering with ‘look-at-me’ personalities and a locker room that boasts some of the most compelling personalities in the league.

Indeed, when you have one teammate that goes on national late night talk-shows half naked and another whose marriage to a reality TV star was headline fodder for weeks, it can be difficult to get noticed.

That seems fine by Gasol. The 30-year-old former third-overall pick appears happy just to continue to play efficiently, fundamentally sound basketball. His PER average has never dipped below 20, a nod to how shockingly consistent he’s been throughout his career, never deviating by more than a few efficiency points. In his time back since his injury it has been much of the same, as he continues to average nearly 18 points and 9 rebounds a night.

Yet you won’t hear his name discussed as an All-Star starter. You would be hard pressed to find many outside of the Laker faithful that acknowledge him as a sure-fire All-NBA selection. And you certainly will not find many advocates preaching that he is Phil Jackson’s most important player.

But that is what I propose. Gasol is more critical to the Lakers ability to run the Triangle to its full potential than Bryant because he does not need to hold and dribble the ball to dominate the game. His versatility is what allows his teammates to go off-script, because they know Gasol’s high basketball IQ will let him adapt.

While Bryant’s skill and all-around brilliance is beyond reproach, so too is Gasol’s length and resourcefulness. Rare is the big man who can break his defender off the dribble. Rarely still is he who can also find opening cutters without much thought. Perhaps rarest of all is the big who can show that all-around game while still banging inside.

Yet that is just what Pau Gasol does – quietly, calmly, efficiently, he ensures his team is always in the game at hand. And something tells me he is okay with that staying an overlooked secret from now until June.

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