The Petron Puzzle

Pinoy LeBron: He's back.
But is it a good thing?

For such a stacked team, the Petron Blaze Boosters' current placing on the PBA Governor's Cup standings would make one reconsider if they really have the league's best-- in terms of players, coaches and overall make-up.

As far as firepower is concerned, it doesn't get any better than the likes of Alex Cabagnot, Joseph Yeo, Chris Lutz, Marcio Lassiter, Dondon Hontiveros and Jay Washington. On defense, you have elite-level guys like FEU buddies Denok Miranda and Arwind Santos, and the usually steady Noy Baclao (if he could ever find minutes for himself consistently).

Still, they are under performing and losing to teams who don't even feature a quarter of the Boosters' star-power.

This guy was pulling down
20 boards a night same time last year

It all starts with their first five: Cabagnot, Lutz, Washington, import and Dorian Pena. Pena's the glue that pulls the kids together because of his enforcer/ rebounding ways. Lutz is another glue guy who you could put in any combination and the floor and will still be effective. That leads us with Cabagnot and Washington (since the import, Eddie Basden, will always be expected to contribute regardless).

Cabagnot is the KKS Wizard. He creates offense out of thin air and there are simply no "broken plays" as long as he's on the floor and has the ball in his hands. He does his best work zig-zagging into the paint and issuing nifty passes OR drilling in threes when the spirit moves him.

Washington on the other hand, was once a steady finisher. When he first entered the league and suited up for Talk 'n' Text (and even with San Miguel/ Petron), Washington was the last guy you'd want to be handling the rock for more than six to eight seconds. That was just a turnover or offensive foul waiting to happen-- well, not anymore.

He's worked on his midrange game, developed some sort of low post game and always has an eye out for offensive boards. When Cabagnot and Washington are on the floor, they can't play to their strengths. Cabagnot needs control of the floor, Washington needs heavy minutes with the ball to create.

Coming off the bench is Santos, last year's Governor's Cup Finals MVP who has been relegated to Washington's back-up. He plays with buddy Miranda (defender) and that's where another problem lies.

Miranda's offense has drastically improved over the years, yes, but between him and Santos, the Boosters' are bound to hit long dry spells (that's why Coach Ato Agustin throws in binge-scorer Yeo to play with these two).

Santos is most effective finishing around the paint-- don't expect him to call for isolations and suddenly bolt into the lane. He's either scoring on three balls or working in the paint. That's it. That's why this guy needs to play with Cabagnot more often rather than with Miranda.

Cabagnot will find a smart low post guy like Santos on the floor. Miranda's defense and stand-still offense will let Washington do his Pinoy LeBron thing.

Sounds about right.

Tonight (in the delayed Petron-Rain or Shine game), we saw Washington and Santos share floor time and score somewhat. They're both talented enough to make it work, but well-prepared teams (going into the semis) will recognize the glaring weakness that the Boosters' have yet to master: the two forwards often get in each other's ways. Be it on their favorite spot on the block to score or rebound, or whenever they make cuts to the rim.

Simply put, it just won't work. Not when your two best players are pretty much the same guys in different bodies.

A little different in terms of offensive skill set, but overall, they're one and the same.

Either Washington moves over to small forward and plays the perimeter, leaving Santos inside full time, or this pairing won't work no matter how great both guys are.

Oh, and we've yet to see how Coach Ato balances the other soon to be redundancy between Lutz and Lassiter (still working his way back from injury). Wonder why Coach Rajko Toroman has yet to solve this problem for the Boosters. Hmmn.