PBA New Year's Resolutions and Wishes

10. Teams (coaches specifically) Refrain From Whining About the Physicality
It's how the league is, and while some of the coaches are stuck in the 90s and the earlier parts of 2000, the PBA now preaches a highly-physical and competitive brand of basketball. It makes for more adversity, it brings out the craftiness of each player and is highly entertaining from a TV audience standpoint because of our natural bloodlust (what's a wild swing here and there from time to time among peers?)

BRICK!

9. Players work on their mid-range game
Most of today's players are stuck in two gears: lay-up/ dunk and three point shot. Sol Mercado is the biggest culprit here, imagine if he had a stop-and-pop pull-up jumper to go to? Or even a Jayson Castro? That would be the day. It would also be good for the younger generation because they'll see that a jumpshot is just as good as a dunk. That for all the flash of a James Yap (carry) lay-up, it scores just the same amount of points as a Larry Rodriguez corner pocket jumper.



8. Philippine Cup title for Yeng Guiao
Arguably one of the greatest local coaches in Philippine basketball. You could always look at coaching in two ways: there are the TEACHERS and there are the MOTIVATORS. Guiao falls under the latter, and over the years we have grown to believe that if Guiao were to train a donkey in a horse race, the donkey would make a decent medal-finish. Seriously.

Huy Ex-Kume, hindi lang Ginebra
ang kelangan ng bagong coach

7. Petron and Ginebra's Return to Glory
It's just not the same without the league's powerhouse teams, specially when they're languishing with all sorts of on and off court drama at the bottom of the standings. For Petron, it's accountability and the failure to identify one true leader (it should be Danny Ildefonso, not the three co-captains) to be the voice of the team and keep everybody in line. For Ginebra, it's about finding the right coach, with the right mindset for the players to follow.

6. Ronald Tubid the Superstar
We believe in Ronald Tubid. We were there when Paul Artadi and James Yap were busy throwing the game away to Ateneo years ago and when Tubid was the only one on the floor who appeared to have "not gotten the memo" and kept on playing his ass off. He has gone from role player, lockdown defender, pest, scorer and what not in the years spent in the PBA. Now with Barako Bull, he finds himself as the one true household name at the SG position. Perhaps he'll rediscover his old, fiery self with rumored incoming coach Pido Jarencio.

5. De La Salle Reunion

Bromance

It's a couple of years too late, but can someone (Air21) please give us the DLSU PBA reunion that we've all been waiting for (La Salle alumni that is). Ateneo had their chance with Red Bull a few years ago with a young Rico Villanueva, Paolo Bugia, Larry Fonacier and Magnum Membrere. So why not a DLSU reunion on the pro ranks? Air21 already has Coach Franz Pumaren, Ren Ren Ritualo and the revitalized Mike Cortez in the fold. Here's to wishing that Petron lets Joseph Yeo join in the fun (it's not like they know how to use him anyway) or that Meralco cedes one-time franchise player Mark "I'm not MacMac" Cardona so that the old Captain Hook can go back to his 100% swag ways.

4. NLEX to the PBA
This

3. Another Powerade Team
Looks like it's the Alaska Aces who are going to crash into the Philippine Cup Finals in Powerade fashion (despite being down 2-3). But really, there's nothing like having a darkhorse beating the favorites or at least making things interesting. There's Barako Bull, Air21, Rain or Shine (which is now looking like a powerhouse because of their consistency, but don't forget that put any of their players on an SMC/MVP roster and they're bound to be at the tailend of the rotation), GlobalPort and Alaska.

2. The Return of Japeth Aguilar

Umuwi ka na kasi

For the love of everything holy. This will be the last time that we will talk about Aguilar until he returns to the country and plays a whole conference. He's 6"9 and athletic. He can run and shoot jumpers. He has no discipline defensively and no post-moves to speak of. A 6"5 burly center can push him out of rebounding position. But he will be a joy to watch because of the way he simple stands out. There's still time for him to learn a few tricks and maybe develop a grounded game. He keeps on dreaming to be the "Next Jeremy Lin" when Lin was posting up near 20-10-5 numbers in high school and college. Aguilar has never even averaged 10 points a game let alone 10 rebounds a game in the UAAP or PBA (wag mo na isama ung US NCAA, no brainer na yun). The only real reason left why we want Aguilar back is that so he could go to Ginebra, Kerby Raymundo can go to Meralco, Rabeh Al Hussaini can go to Talk 'n' Text and JayR Reyes heads to GlobalPort as reported by Snow Badua on Spin.Ph.

PILIPINAS-Powerade (o ayan mga tukmol na nagtatanggol
sa SMC kesyo may SMART daw ung jersey ngayon)

1. San Miguel Players on SMART Gilas
That would be the day.