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| Good, but not great... yet. (Photo credit to the owner) |
Two games in, we have yet to see the kind of impact that was expected of both men. Two games in, and we could dismiss all the hype right now and say that there is definitely room for improvement.
Maybe, a lot of it.
The 1st and 2nd overall picks of the 2015 PBA Draft, the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters 6"7 duo of Moala Tautuaa and Troy Rosario have been solid thus far though a bit unimpressive. For one, Tautuaa was already making headlines even before he made it known that he wanted to play in the PBA, strutting his slam dunking, beastly ways over at the ASEAN Basketball League. The transition should've been easier, since TNT was a team without a true center ever since Ali Peek opted to retire.
Tautuaa was supposed to be the answer.
Rosario on the other hand is the bonus, the Godsend. He wasn't supposed to play for TNT, but they saw enough promise in him to make sure that they had the 2nd overall pick to nab him right away. He made headlines by appearing to be unstoppable in the UAAP Finals, when in reality he was basically making the most of playing the weak side off a dominant center (Alfred Aroga) that the opposing team (FEU) didn't really have an answer for.
He has range, when his feet is set. He rebounds well. He moves underneath well. But low post moves, dribbling the ball, and other things required from a big man, even for a stretch 4, well-- he can learn those as his career flourishes.
Which means, he isn't a savior just yet.
Which means, if you are a TNT fan, you'll just have to wait maybe a year or two more before you can really see the real strength of these two stallions and what they can really offer the team in general.
To put things in perspective, here are the stats of 3 players, all standing 6"7:
Player A: 22.9 mpg 8 ppg 4 rpg 0 apg
Player B 22.5 mpg 7 ppg 4 rpg 2 apg
Player C 25.3 mpg 11 ppg 8 rpg 0 apg
Of the three, you would expect maybe Player C to be Tautuaa's averages. Since his height, heft and hype suggest he'd be close to a double double guy for TNT (specially now that Ranidel de Ocampo is injured).
Well, Player A is Troy Rosario. His 3-ball helping in boosting his scoring somewhat.
Player B is Tautuaa.
Player C is Rain or Shine's Raymond Almazan. You could argue that he plays maybe 3 minutes more than the two, but they all stand in the "no set/iso plays called for me" category. You could argue that Jayson Castro is the alpha and omega of TNT's offense. Hey, same goes for RoS with Jeffrei Chan getting the lion's share of shots with Paul Lee out. Hell, TNT and RoS share some of the tenets of the Dribble Drive Offense so you could say that if you were to put Almazan on TNT right now, he'd contribute a bit more.
We aren't saying that Rosario and Tautuaa aren't as good as Almazan, or that they'll never surpass him. What we're trying to say is for fans to simply temper their unfair and unjust expectations.
Tautuaa appears a bit lost in the scheme of things, since his natural tendency is to face-up and attack the basket. He can't really do that at the moment since Castro is controlling the game and when he's out, it's Matt Ganuelas Rosser leading the DDO scheme. If he added a post-up game just to catch the ball first down low and work from there, he'd be okay. Maybe someone should send him clips of a young Amare Stoudemire. Catch in the low-high post at angles, face-up, and attack.
Rosario needs a bit more work. In two games, he's been easily pushed out of the paint by the PBA's bruising forwards and centers. This isn't college wherein he was one of the taller and quicker guys. Fellow rookie Bradwyn Guinto kept brushing him aside in the pivot. What happens when he faces Junemar Fajardo and Asi Taulava?
Also, his biggest asset has been his three ball. But since TNT is asking him to concentrate on rebounding and helping in the paint, he is forced to camp inside wherein his only plan of attack is to put the ball back in the hoop. No post up game whatsoever. We've seen some flashes, but not enough to really be a threat against elite forwards and centers. Does he want to focus on playing the 3 spot full time? He'll need to improve his handles for that. And maybe he won't be the quickest once he slides to that position which will hurt him even more.
Overall, the future is still bright for these two specimens and TNT in general. Just don't ask or expect them, Tautuaa specially, to stop Fajardo in-game.
Not yet, anyway.
"Troy Rosario is better than Ian Sangalang!"
This was actually voiced out by a lot of "professional sports writers" pre-season.
SMH.
Your thoughts on TNT's rookies?
Finally someone who doesnt ride the Troy bandwagon. How he gained this much hype while being a mediocre player in college is beyond me. Rosario still has a lot to prove to be atleast considered equal with Sangalang and Almazan (which are ncaa mvps btw).for him to even be considered as better than those two is just absurd.
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