Back to the drawing board for Shopinas.Com

No longer the Rain Man of old, Clickers
need to go with the young guns

Everyone saw this coming right from the start: the young Shopinas.Com Clickers managed by Ms. Shiela Lina have finally been eliminated in the Philippine Cup after failing to land a single victory.

Realistically speaking, no one took the Clickers seriously despite having a collegiate Hall of Fame coach in Franz Pumaren and still serviceable marquee player Ren-Ren Ritualo in the fold. Why would they, when this team is made up mostly of bit players from other teams (Ogie Menor, RJ Jazul) and a couple of promising but "not-yet-there" bigs such as young Magi Sison and James Sena?

Did we expect them to be swept early? Yes. But did we see them fighting tooth and nail in games, manning up over their "kuyas" in the PBA and even drawing the ire of certain players and officials as in the case of Menor?

Not really, but you have to admire their spunk.

Looking at the roster and stat leaders, you have Jazul with 10 ppg, Sena 9 rpg and Paolo Hubalde with 3 apg. Not exactly something you want for leaders, but give the Clickers more time and perhaps Hubalde's assist numbers will go up, as will Jazul's scoring (when he figures out his spots on the floor and how to work with Sena). Sena, right now, is a solid young big who can only get better after averaging close to a double-double in the eliminations.

Some key adjustments that the Clickers may want to consider though:

- Find a solid, pass first (not score-first like Hubalde) point guard. It pains this writer to great extent that the 1/2 of the NU combo that beat the odds earlier this decade is not in the PBA-- that being speedy Froilan Baguion. If Rudy Lingganay could make it to the league, there's no reason why Baguion (though he might be signed with one of the Filipino ABL teams at this point) couldn't come back.

- Keep playing Sison and Sena together to form a young, Twin Towers that could very well rival the Alaska Aces' Sonny Thoss-JayR Reyes combination. This writer has a soft spot for Pinoy bigs and believe that anyone over 6"6 should be developed into the next Danny Ildefonso, Kerby Raymundo or Dennis Espino.

- Trust Ogie Menor and Homer Se in the clutch. These two guys give the Clickers some teeth and swagger and should play more. Should they be more involved offensively? Uh, Menor yes, Se no.

- Play DEFENSE. Kids' are worried about scoring that they keep forgetting about playing defense. No excuses here, they're young so they should be running all over the place. Pumaren is an excellent defensive coach, so that's on the players more than the coach.

- Build around Jazul, Sena and Sison. Yes, Ritualo can still shoot, but his overall game has regressed to the point that he's just a skinnier version of Alaska Milkman deadshot Kevin Ramas Roel Gomez (thanks APE). Since DLSU, Ritualo hasn't learned to really trust his dribbling skills or even set himself up for mid range Js (which he's bound to have absolutely no problems with given his beautiful, Pinoy Ray Allen-ish shot).

Finally, if the Clickers want to contend in the next conference either they get a heavy big import OR a savvy point guard. Best thing about this conference though is that we saw that they can fight and match-up with the league's best and that there's no way to go but up.