Ginebra: flawed, but good

Iba na ang matangkad. At MAGALING.
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel has taken the Philippine Basketball Association by storm, now up the Philippine Cup standings with an impressive 9-1 slate.

At the forefront of the attack is floor general L.A. Tenorio whose veteran smarts and point guard savvy remains unmatched. His teammates trust him, rumored, former headcases and divas follow his every marching order without question and there is arguably no other Filipino basketball player today that is universally loved and respected regardless of affiliation.

While the Ginebra faithful continue to wait for their former PBA MVPs Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand to play their way back to form, another player has emerged to make a case for the league's ultimate individual accolade.

Japeth Aguilar, loved by few and hated by many (no need to be shy now, we all picked on Aguilar if only because of his handler's twisted sense of self-entitlement), is starting to be the player we have all wanted him to be. NBA dreams aside, we've said countless times that if Aguilar wanted a real NBA look, then all he has to do is dominate the Filipino scene first and become its sole, unchallenged and unequalled best basketball export product.

The way he and his handlers did it first, Aguilar was simply trying to get into the NBA as another token 6"9 athlete. Not even known as his country's best. But now, with the way he is playing, there seems to be no stopping Aguilar from dominating the PBA (and maybe Asia next) which is how it is supposed to be if we are to have the first Filipino NBA player.

At the same time, there's the seven foot Greg Slaughter working on the strong side that allows Aguilar to play in a taller, stronger, less ball handling-more offensive minded FIBA Asia Gabe Norwood fashion.

Looking at Ginebra, they're strong points are obviously at the point guard and center positions. Caguioa, when healthy, will always be a factor. The real reason why we call Ginebra a "work in progress" despite the record is that we have yet to see the best from their collection of young, Grade A wings of Mac Baracael, Dylan Ababou, James Forrester, and Chris Ellis.

If we are lucky, we'd see maybe an Ababou or Ellis explosion coinciding with solid games from Tenorio, Slaughter and Aguilar. We haven't been treated to a Petron Blaze-like "share the wealth" game wherein everyone posts about the same numbers (during Petron's initial seven game winning streak).

The minute every guy on the Ginebra roster gets on the same page and plays in rhythm, you are looking at arguably the most formidable line-up in recent memory good enough to entertain grand slam thoughts.