Season of learning

The Slash Brothers
(Photo credit: cnnphilippines.com)

You win some, you lose some.

Now that the PBA has expanded to twelve teams (soon to be thirteen), winning a title—let alone staying competitive, is becoming a much more difficult task. There are a lot of factors that affect a team’s chances of winning, none more than the possibility of high caliber players (even coaches) being pirated by big-money franchises.

Heck we even learned this season that even big-money, sister, franchises are not safe from “cannibalizing” one another; a fate suffered by the Star Hotshots, who lost both their grand slam coach Tim Cone and versatile wing Joe DeVance, at the hands of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.

Three teams have already been officially eliminated in the season-ending PBA Governor’s Cup: the Hotshots, GlobalPort Batang Pier, and Blackwater Elite. Here are some of the things we noticed in their respective campaigns, where they went wrong and could build on moving forward and through the 2016 PBA Draft.
Blackwater Elite
They were competitive in the Philippine Cup thanks to Mike Cortez and Carlo Lastimosa, but as predicted once Cortez was sidelined by injuries the whole ship started to slowly fall apart. Coach Leo Isaac has done his best to utilize his players, but only Art de la Cruz has responded after Cortez. Lastimosa is still largely inconsistent, though his scoring prowess is starting to show.

Now that they have opted to trade Cortez and sign Denok Miranda as his replacement, we are really lost on the direction that this team wants to take. While Miranda is a solid defensive point-guard who can set the table, he is not as much of a threat on offense as Cortez is despite his recent improvements. The best thing to do here is to build around Lastimosa, de la Cruz and maybe Roi Sumang while adding a few more bangers/ rebounders in the box.

If they could get their hands on the 1st overall pick in the coming 2016 PBA Draft, then they could follow in Rain or Shine’s lead and hopefully build a contender slowly, but surely—that is, if they could hold on to their picks (past, present and future).

GlobalPort Batang Pier
With all due respect to head coach Johnedel Cardel, we sincerely hope that Batang Pier consultant and Adamson head coach Franz Pumaren calls the shots by next season. For the first time in the young Terrence Romeo Era, we actually feel like this team is out to win instead of simply putting on a dribbling exhibition.

We love the late season trade for Mike Cortez which reunites him with Joseph Yeo as the “senior” version of the dynamic Romeo and Stanley Pringle duo. It is not far-fetched to say that Coach Franz envisions Romeo-Pringle as the 2nd coming of his DLSU Cortez-Yeo tandem (though technically it was Mac Cardona who Cortez was running with, or even coax Ren Ren Ritualo out of retirement) wherein the lead guard orchestrates and posts near triple-doubles as a norm while the other puts up 25-30 point scoring binges.

As far as the other pieces are concerned, this team is actually quite solid: Anthony Semerad is blossoming into a rugged defender with great range, while Doug Kramer and Billy Mamaril are textbook, role-playing bigs.

The key here is if Batang Pier could find another wing guy or maybe a four-man to supplant Jay Washington (or give him a run for his money in practices). Coach Franz won his four-peat over at DLSU when he had a “complete” team anchored on his full court press, superstar backcourt AND a reliable big man (Mark Telan, Don Allado... and even Carlo Sharma that one Finals run) .

We wouldn’t be all too surprised if Batang Pier starts making waves as early as the first conference, regardless of who they end up drafting.

Star Hotshots
This season was just downright ugly for the Hotshots.

They lost their coach (Tim Cone), replaced by a neophyte with no prior coaching experience on any competitive level (Jason Webb), they saw their best and most skilled big man (Joe DeVance) traded for next to nothing AND forgot who they were as a whole altogether because of it.

We honestly do not know how the Hotshots can rebound from this season without having to overhaul whatever it was that they were trying to do. Should they run more? They certainly did, but they also forgot to pass and play defense. Should the kids be entrusted with the offense? We think so, because PJ Simon is on his last legs, James Yap is switching back to his lethargic self and Marc Pingris is having tremendous difficulty with the “no armbar” rule among other officiating changes.

RR Garcia and Mark Barroca are too talented a pair not to be starting together, Allein Maliksi gets our nod at small forward because he is a bit more active/ willing on defense than both Simon and Yap. Pingris will always be in there, but we wouldn’t mind if Coach Jason relies more on Ian Sangalang, Jake Pascual and Rodney Brondial.

Sangalang was the missing link for the Hotshots this season, as he was expected to takeover the void left by DeVance and then some. Unfortunately, the knee injuries appear to have altered his game somewhat, as he is not as aggressive around the basket as he used to. If Coach Jason could get Sangalang back to playing like before, then they have enough young firepower to stay in the middle of the hunt.

No, Arnold Van Opstal is not going to save this franchise. The young ones will.

Which among these three teams do you think will rise to the top next season? Who needs to rebuild completely? @kilikilishot on Twitter