F8 rewarded

It's been a long day...
(Photo credit: inq.net)

It took eight years and what now seems like a platoon of coaches before Barangay Ginebra San Miguel won another PBA championship, but last night everything just fell into place.

Coach Tim Cone was outsmarting his counterpart on every turn; the team held a 3-2 series lead; the other team’s (Meralco) most defiant soldier—Jimmy Alapag, was hurting; Ginebra’s aging duo of Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand were rallying the "kids";  and no less than the Ginebra beloved Robert Jaworski, Sr. was in attendance. 

The near buzzer-beating triple by import Justin Brownlee, to break an 88-all lock, was icing on the cake.
The way things were going, with big shot after big shot being traded, the theme of the series foretold who was going to win Game 6. In the games that Meralco won, the scores were above the 100 mark. In the games that Ginebra won, it was in the 80s.

88-88 all.

And Brownlee, Ginebra, most likely knew of this "statistic."

There were a lot of heroes for Ginebra: PBA Finals MVP L.A. Tenorio, who has been on a tear all season long after being cut from the FIBA World-Gilas selection; veterans Sol Mercado, Japeth Aguilar, Joe DeVance, Caguioa and Helterbrand all took turns pitching in; and of course,  rookie Scottie Thompson did everything that he could on the basketball court to ensure that they had an advantage.

It was just beautiful to watch.

And you know what? This team hasn’t even started to truly scratch the surface of their greatness just yet.

Next season, they will have Greg Slaughter back in the fold plus a Gilas rookie (whoever it may be) and another blue-chip rookie (should they choose to pick one). That means teams will have to worry about the 7”0 Slaughter once again, after “managing” against Aguilar and Brownlee this conference.
Brownlee will be gone of course, but the team will still feature Slaughter, Aguilar and DeVance who have all yet to really spend long minutes together. That right there is arguably the tallest frontline in PBA history, with only maybe an RP National team being able to match it height-wise (the 1998 Centennial team frontline of Marlou Aquino, Dennis Espino and Jun Limpot might match it, though not quite).

Should they add/ trade away players?

What for? The team just won a championship!

Well, if you really want to nitpick—they still need a shooter/ floor spacer. Mercado has been showing a lot of confidence in his 3-ball, so that’s nice. But having an extra shooter wouldn’t hurt. Also, there is that little problem with Chris Ellis, if he is able to bring it all together and be that Gabe Norwood-ish 3 and D guy that Coach Tim wants. He showed flashes before he got hurt, so let’s give him another season perhaps?

Overall, we love how Ginebra is currently constructed. They can go big with Thompson Ellis DeVance Aguilar Slaughter, they can go small and quick with Tenorio Mercado Thompson DeVance Aguilar… there’s just a multitude of styles that this team can play similar to how Coach Tim practically made two starting fives during his time at STAR/ Purefoods.

Of course, it would be a bit premature to rule out any "upgrades."

Watch out, 3x PBA MVP Junemar Fajardo and the San Miguel Beermen.