The Hangover

Where to, Captain?
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

What's going on with the San Miguel Beermen?

The newly-minted PBA Philippine Cup champions find themselves winless in three games so far in the PBA Commissioner's Cup, despite the superhuman efforts of 6"9 reinforcement Ronald Roberts and the supposed "powerhouse" frontline pairing of him and reigning PBA MVP Junemar Fajardo.

To make things worse, their most recent defeat came at the hands of newcomers, then-winless, BlackWater Elite which are more and more looking like their rivals, Team MVP's, farm team.

Head coach Leo Austria was reported to have said something like being "embarrassed" about his team's display so far.

As he should.
While Roberts has been putting up the prerequisite 20-10 statline for the Beermen, he finds himself standing alone on an island while the locals appear to be in no rush recovering from their collective, sweet championship hangover.

True, the reigning PBA Finals MVP and team captain Arwind Santos is not getting his customary minutes and rhythm touches because he has to make way for Roberts-- which should all be put on Coach Austria's shoulders. But then, this is supposedly a new Beermen line-up which relies on all members and not just on one single person.

So where's Fajardo? Alex Cabagnot? Marcio Lassiter? Chris Lutz?

Of the five Phil Cup starters, we'd expect Lassiter to at least make a case for himself this conference since he wasn't much of a factor in the PBA Finals just weeks ago.

Rumors have it that the Beermen are exploring the possibility of replacing Roberts with 6"3 Arizona Reid (formerly of the Rain or Shine Elastopainters). Now while this appears to be a rather drastic move, we see where the Beermen are coming from.

With Roberts, the Beermen play a more set-up, traditional style of basketball. They are unable to create too many mismatches down low, despite having both Roberts and Fajardo, because teams know that all they need to do is crowd the paint as much as they can while still keeping an eye out on the Beermen's (misfiring) shooters.

Last conference, with Santos playing the 4 spot, the Beermen were very unpredictable because not only could Santos defend and rebound like a 4, but he played a lot like a 3 on offense with his much improved three point shooting. It spaced the floor for Fajardo (who still hasn't developed a kick-out/ passing game) and made life a lot easier for slashers to move in at will.

So yeah, maybe you could chalk up Cabagnot, Ross, Lutz, Lassiter and even Tubid's struggles on the floor by them having another giant crowding their driving lanes.

Bringing in a guy like Reid means having a guy who plays a hell of a lot like Santos, only maybe 10x better.

They'll give up some size, yes, but only against Ginebra which features Greg Slaughter and import Mike Dunnigan. Against the rest of the field, a Reid-Santos-Fajardo frontline should be able to hold its own.

Still, it's too early to be hitting the panic button for the Beermen. Just a few changes here and there, and we're quite confident that the team will be able to make a deep PBA Playoff push.

That, or they could pluck another star-in-the-making from one of their farm teams to help address any concerns.