Crown Jewel

Kumpyansa goes a long way
(Photo credit to the owner)

Credit Rain or Shine Elastopainters' head coach for turning another almost lost PBA career around.

He did it for the likes of Beau Belga and JayR Quinahan who pre-RoS were surely on their way out of the PBA as teams were looking for mobile, athletic bigs. He had a hand in the development of now legit PBA household names Cyrus Baguio, Larry Fonacier and Jeffrei Chan, turning them from good to great while other players of their caliber (the Baguio types: Val Acuna and PJ Cabahug, the Chan/Fonacier: John Wilson, Jimbo Aquino are dealing with life being in and out of the league/ glued to the bench).

Add RoS' new resident big man, 6"5 Jewel Ponferada, to the list.

Prior to this season, Ponferada played for San Mig Coffee Mixers and GlobalPort with career averages of 18 games played per, 9mpg 2ppg 3rpg.

This conference? How does 24mpg 9ppg 6rpg 1apg and some hard-nosed defense and bone-crushing screens and picks sound? Though we are not pretty sure about Ponferada stroking it from deep, he has shown confidence in taking shots from 15 to 17 feet and even all the way out from the 3-point range when open.

That is what a Coach Yeng does: he gives you the minutes to shine, to learn from your mistakes on the floor, and only punishes those who do not give their all. It does not matter if they do not look like a superstar on the court, but what seems to matter to Coach Yeng is the effort his players put in when they are in the game.

And Jewel has made the most out of the opportunity given him.

Earlier, as RoS fans, we were not too happy with the trade since skills-wise, Jervy Cruz, a former UAAP MVP, is much better offensively.

But while Cruz is better on offense, Ponferada is scrappier on defense. And even if they are both listed at 6"5, Ponferada seems a bit taller than Cruz. Also stronger and meaner in the box.

If Ponferada plays his cards right, he can enjoy a long PBA career much like teammate Quinahan who, we could bet our last Peso on, wouldn't even be considered as an 8th man on another team.

All of a sudden, RoS' frontline looks a hell of a lot deeper than it was last year. With a guy like Ronnie Matias, who was a heavy contributor in their 2012 title run, being the last man on the rotation even.

Having said all of the above, we cannot help but be bummed about Japeth Aguilar. He played for a bit for Guiao, but reportedly could not handle the heat. We don't see his game having any problems with Guiao, since on offense Guiao lets anyone just about do anything, but perhaps it is on defense where they don't see eye to eye.

Guiao made Baguio into a skilled/ crafty defender which he wasn't in the UAAP. Fonacier, who was already under-rated in college, learned some more tricks. Chan was never the defender. Ever. Until Guiao turned him into a sly, magulang one.

Hay Japeth.