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| Nawala si Reyes sa maling balasa ni Coach Joel |
First off, there's the re-emergence of L.A. Tenorio as one of the league's premier point guard- if not as THE premier point guard now that we've seen Petron's Alex Cabagnot go back to his old, timid, flashy ways. In the Philippine Cup, Tenorio tried his darndest to lead a team that wasn't ready to win. They looked for Tim Cone on the bench and ran the same plays but it just wasn't the same.
It will never be the same. Head coach Joel Banal is not Cone, they don't run the same plays, and aren't the same coaches. Banal is a basketball purist who prefers having 3 guards and 2 bigs at the floor. From his successful stint with Ateneo (Tenorio-Fonacier-Gonzales-Alvarez-Villanueva) and now to the Aces (Tenorio-Custodio-Baguio-Reyes-Thoss), Banal brings a whole different look to the team wherein everyone on the floor is accountable.
In the Commissioner's Cup, Banal threw the Cone playbook and went to his strengths. He asked the Aces to run- and run they did. This new approach rejuvenated guards Cyrus Baguio and Bonbon Custodio, while also putting the pressure on cornerstone Sonny Thoss to rebound the basketball and set sturdier screens as opposed to getting his own numbers.
Seven-foot import Adam Parada of the Mexican men's basketball team was seen as a steal of a recruit given the "unlimited height" requirement this conference, but his selection proved to be quite costly for the Aces.
They finished 5-4 in the eliminations to make it into the quarterfinals, but we never really got that "monster" game from Parada. This writer masked it by saying that in the Aces' scheme of things, they weren't really looking for a dominant center, but merely for a post presence since they are trying to get all of the guys into the scoring flow of things.
As a center, traditionally, Parada did what was asked of him. Set picks, score on putbacks and block shots. Rebounding-wise, he had Thoss on his side which would make getting your own rebounds quite challenging. It's not like Thoss was planted on the opposite end of the box and asking for back-to-the-basket touches-- the guy was also hovering around the rim for rebounds so you can't really blame Parada for his abysmal stats.
Scoring wise, the Aces were simply running too much and not settling in the half court. This isn't to say that Parada would've dropped 20-30 points a night had they done so, just that the team was bent on scoring on fastbreaks more than sets.
The argument here however, is perhaps the Aces should've gotten a small forward in the mold of a Gabe Freeman, Duke Crews, Anthony Johnson or even Donnel Harvey.
From a roster standpoint, the Aces already have the giants to compete with the best in the league. Samigue Eman stands 6"9 and has the muscles that Marlou Aquino and Yancy de Ocampo could only dream of. Sonny Thoss stands 6"7. Jay-R Reyes is also up there at around 6"7 as well as reserves Hans Thiele (6"6) and Paolo Bugia (6"5).
The addition of Parada hampered the development of Reyes who was pretty dominant in the Philippine Cup. Daresay the young ex-Maroon looked like Kerby Raymundo 2.0 at times and was making Thoss look like an overpaid, over-rated franchise player the way he was scoring around the basket.
Think about it.
Tenorio, Baguio, Reyes and Thoss with a small forward for a reinforcement who runs the floor, plays defense and scores, scores, scores. They have the bigs to cover up and do the dirty work, so maybe it all came down to a tactical error in the end for the Aces.
In the Quarterfinals duel with the Barako Bull Energy, the Aces lost more to Gabe Freeman than to the Energy as a whole. Yes, Ronald Tubid caught fire in that game, but he was open because Freeman was sucking up all the defenders whenever he drove into the lane.
The Aces could only offer Baracael (out of rhythm) and *gasp* Cyrus Baguio to try and stop Freeman. And well, we all know how that worked out for them huh?
Had team captain Tony de la Cruz been around, it could've been a different ball game given his solid defensive work, but he still doesn't have the athleticism to compete with elite small forwards.
It's quite ironic though, that in their hopes of re-igniting their guards' firepower, they did it by settling for the "wrong" import and "shelving" their best weapon going into games-- their young Twin Towers combination of Thoss and Reyes.
I agree that they could have used dela Cruz' defense and leadership in spite of him not being too athletic. Parada was a good choice for them given the unlimited height for imports but I was thinking Diamon Simpson would have been a better fit for them even though he last played here for Tim Cone. At least nobody would have been able to complain about his height if ever they brought him in.
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