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| Play him or trade him. (Photo credit: Sports5.ph) |
While we love what you have done in the last few years, primarily what former head coach Luigi Trillo introduced and what Alex Compton is currently trying to perfect, please be assured that we are not at all fond of how one Calvin Abueva is being treated/ utilized.
He is easily your best player. And this guise of #wenotme is starting to look stupid, when all the "comeback" games are born or produced by this very simple reason: your first unit sucks in general, so the second unit has to work double-time to first erase the deficit, and second, win games. And you know who is anchoring that second team?
Calvin "why is he still playing 28 minutes or less" Abueva.
It took you the entire season up to yesterday's Game 4 to realize that hey, maybe you should be starting Abueva and letting him run with it.
Game four was the only time in the ENTIRE PBA Governor's Cup tournament wherein Abueva logged in more than TWENTY EIGHT MINUTES. In the elimination round, Abueva played only 20+ minutes in 2 of 11 games.
Let it be known right here, right now: Calvin Abueva is the best player on the entire Alaska Aces' roster.
Calvin Abueva can guard any one on that Aces roster. From JVee Casio (he would kill JVee) to Sonny Thoss (he would ride Thoss to the ground).
No one on that Aces roster can guard Abueva.
Not a lot of folks in the PBA can guard Abueva, one on one, in a full game.
Which means, since he's that effective on the floor, surely he should be playing a lot more right?
We're worried about him possibly disrupting the Aces' flow? What flow? Their vanilla flow? #WeNotMe flow? The "the game starts only when Abueva and the 2nd unit come in" flow?
We're worried about how he would alienate everyone else with his play? Did you watch him average a near triple double in his final season with San Sebastian? Ian Sanggalang took home the MVP that year, but only because 1) Abueva made him look damn good as the finisher to most of his assists and 2) Abueva punched someone and got disqualified for it.
He is your best player, and yet you try to bury him underneath a "team-first" concept.
We're not telling or begging Alaska to switch it all up and call iso for Abueva much like Talk'n'Text does for Jayson Castro or Meralco did for Sol Mercado that one conference (before he was traded). We're simply asking for the guy to be given the respect and credit that he's due, to let him play the minutes that he deserves instead of asking him to try and resurrect or give flavor to an otherwise stale Alaska product.
Are they limiting his minutes to conserve his energy?
He has lots of it! Milk it!
Are they benching him to keep him in check and ensure that chaos or melees don't break out?
That's Abueva's game. Love him or hate him, that's his game.
If you don't want him, trade for Cliff Hodge. Same intensity, different skillset. But that guy you can control as your puppet.
Abueva?
#LetAbuevaBeAbueva
In Game 4 they let Abueva loose on the Beermen for 33 minutes-- the most this conference, 3rd most since the Commissioner's Cup. How did he respond? Did he foul out? No. Did he start a melee? Well, not really.
He put up Junemar Fajardo, 2x PBA MVP, 6"10-like numbers of 22 points and 17 rebounds-- all at 6"1 and 206 lbs soaking wet of him.
If you take a quick look at his Philippine Cup numbers, he averaged around 28.4 minutes a game and Alaska was unstoppable in his run of near double-doubles. Should've been BPC all things considered too.
Hopefully, Game 4's extended minutes is a sign of things to come.
If not...
... play him or trade him.
Because really, benching Abueva or using him sparingly is like sleeping with your lover with a condom on AND withdrawing.
Agree!
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