Off the track

Still a G
(PBA.Inquirer.net)

Someone please nudge NLEX Road Warriors head coach Boyet Fernandez awake, as he is continuously driving the team bus aimlessly in circles.

How else can you explain the team's current PBA Commissioner's Cup 5 wins - 5 losses predicament, despite the presence of a legitimate NBA offensive talent in import Al Thornton (who is really, a one-legged scoring dynamo), revived play of 6"10 former PBA MVP Asi Taulava and the emerging Sean Anthony? The Philippine Cup was no different, and even last season: NLEX would look like a legitimate powerhouse team with the right balance of veterans and young guns one day, and look like a team that is just trying to make it through another respectable season.

No rings, just some wins to go with some losses.

Looking at the figures, Coach Boyet has been relying heavily on a 7 to 8 man rotation: Thornton (43mpg 36ppg 12rpg 3apg), Taulava (33mpg 12ppg 10rpg), Anthony (36mpg 15ppg 10rpg 2apg), Jonas Villanueva (29mpg 9ppg 3rpg 3apg) and Kevin Alas (27mpg 9ppg 2rpg) appear to be his lead guys, with Simon Enciso (20mpg 5ppg 2rpg 2apg) and Garvo Lanete (29mpg 9ppg 2rpg) as his chief fireplugs off the bench.

Sure, Coach Boyet has been calling Rico Villanueva's and Rob Reyes' numbers, but we feel that he has yet to really unleash this roster's full potential. It is more like, Coach Boyet has this certain structure in mind, and will only use the players that he feels can work under that structure-- which is good, if you have B- caliber players. But you cannot tell us that a guy like Mac Cardona, or even a John Wilson, cannot or do not deserve about 15 minutes of action and maybe a few touches with the basketball as both players could easily light up the score board (and as far as we know, are still in their respective healthy playing years).

Instead of playing uptempo, NLEX plays half court. To make full use of Taulava. Which is good. But it takes away from the scoring creativity of Alas, Lanete, Enciso-- all open court, up and down young thoroughbreds.

Instead of unleashing Cardona (and Wilson), we get Villanueva. A tweener who is not really a scorer, but is asked to play SG, in Coach Boyet's system with Alas-- the natural scorer, penciled in at PG and facilitator. Any time Alas calls his own number or tries to create, Coach Boyet cringes in the sidelines and checks his bench who can distribute for him.

Well duh, Coach Boyet. Come on, now.

See, we have been fans of Coach Boyet ever since he took over the Santa Lucia team and turned that shithole of a team into championship contenders. He gave them a defensive identity. He was able to motivate Dennis Espino AND Marlou Aquino, who were simply out chasing on paychecks at the time. His offense was a bit like it is now: predictable, with players pencilled in key positions: Denok Miranda was his chief distributor, Ryan Reyes was his stopper/ part-time scorer, Bitoy Omolon is the do-it-all guy, Kelly Williams is his MVP workhorse and Espino/Aquino was good enough to combine for at least a double double. Joseph Yeo comes off the bench as the scorer.

Fast forward to today: Taulava is basically Espino/Aquino. Thornton is your Williams. Anthony is Omolon. That part where it gets blurred is with Villanueva, Alas and Lanete.

Logically speaking, Villanueva: Miranda. Lanete: Reyes. Alas: Yeo. At least, that is up to how we see the three guys.The way they are being used though is this: Alas: Miranda, Villanueva: Reyes, Lanete: Yeo.

Lanete cannot create. Villanueva has his moments, but the injuries have caught up. Alas' explosive slashing and scoring abilities are being wasted.

Sure, you could argue against what we just said and how we compared Coach Boyet's approach to NLEX as the one he took with SLR. But our point here is, for a team with such fine weaponry, they are too good to be stuck in limbo.

RUN NLEX RUN.

Taulava controls the boards with Anthony. The guards push the ball up. Thornton is your fail-safe half court scorer.

Hope they can turn things around and stop wasting what could be the last few games/ conferences we see of Taulava.