Checks and balances

Time to break the duo up?

For a star-studded team that's obviously built around "professionalism" and a business-like approach, the Petron Blaze Boosters sure does an awful way of auditing themselves.

There's one of the three captains, Arwind Santos, speaking his mind after their 88-86 loss to the Alaska Aces, calling out his point guard Alex Cabagnot. The mere and simple fact that they have THREE captains should be cause of concern. And how they all managed to overtake veteran Danny Ildefonso from the picture is also an obvious display of how they want to move forward.

They're far from being sentimental, they know who the stars on the team are, those are the captains. Captains who are expected to take the lead. To bring the fight night in and night out and not let anything shake them in the endgame.

Well, for such great captains, they are pretty quick on blaming anyone BUT themselves.

Santos calling out Cabagnot for his failure to live up to his "Captain Crunch" tag. But what was he doing the whole game when he wasn't busy trying to one-up debuting Aces' rookie Calvin Abueva? He wasn't hustling, he wasn't playing smart. He was just going through the motions like he always does, waiting to launch his patented "no lift" threes.

Washington finished with 15, but was doing all of the same things as Santos. Cabagnot was, well, being Cabagnot. He had a great run two years ago to the point that he was challenging L.A. Tenorio's claim on the "Point God" throne but that's now all in the past if you ask us.

Of the guys on the roster, you know who's bringing it and who clearly isn't.

Jay Washington is good, but he's not a franchise player let alone a guy you should be building your team on. The Boosters won the Governor's Cup years back because Santos played the 4 spot, was comfortable back in his old area near the paint and was pulling down 15 boards a night like crazy. He was still jacking threes, but he was playing like, well, Abueva did in the NCAA.

Washington will never average more than 13 boards a night. It's not his game. He's a wing. Last time we checked, the Boosters have a bunch of those. So why not trade him while his stock is up there? Preferably for a legit young point guard (Global Port's AJ Mandani is nice, we don't think Coach Glenn Capacio realizes it yet so why not jump in and get the kid) who can set up the floor and play defense.

Oh, and there's DENOK MIRANDA.

Champion point guard. From high school to college to the pros. He actually looks a lot better than he did when he was winning all those titles. He might not be as flashy as Cabagnot, but he is efficient. That, plus he knows where Santos wants the ball. He also knows who his scorers are.

Oh, and guys won't score on him as easily.

This team already has "go-to-scorers" prototypes in Joseph Yeo and Alex Mallari. They also have Chris Lutz and are just waiting for Marcio Lassiter to it's really not about Cabagnot stepping his scoring up. It's about him making the effort to find the open man and make great reads (hindi ung ikaw nagbaba ng bola, ikaw na din titira ng tres).

Everyone's to blame on the Boosters' side. From Santos, Cabagnot, Washington, the bench, to whoever the fruck is really coaching this team.

On a side note, they got the wrong Racela (love Olsen, but Nash is the better and more accomplished, PBA-ready coach).