SAN MIGUEL Beer is chasing pieces of franchise history this PBA season, the first being to win the Philippine Cup, or the all-Filipino title, for the third straight time.
And because of the sheer power packed in its lineup, the second objective, and this is a bigger one but totally very early, is to become just the second team in league history to complete a Grand Slam.
Against Star on opening night last Sunday, the Beermen rallied from nine points down in the fourth period to prevail, not with complete authority but with much poise and calm down the stretch, something which could not be said of the Hotshots.
Though it was just the first game, coach Leo Austria talked with a lot of urgency in winning that game, which, this corner feels, could help make the Beermen fall short of those two objectives when this is all said and done.
June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot and Marcio Lassiter were made to play extended minutes and Austria, despite signing two celebrated rookies in the off-season, played just 10 men for that contest.
Austria’s coaching style is old school, and that is to play his best players as much as he could and grind out a win. He has been relatively successful with three titles in his first two seasons calling the shots.
But many experts feel that the strength of San Miguel lies in the depth of its bench, the kind of depth that can ease some of the load off of Fajardo and the rest of the core.
No one can argue with success, that’s a given.
But with a lineup that he has, and with Fajardo being the most dominant player in the last three years, some sincerely feel that those three championships could have easily been more.
***
San Miguel won the Philippine Cup the last two seasons because Fajardo is simply a class of his own. No offense to Barangay Ginebra’s Greg Slaughter or the veteran Asi Taulava of the NLEX Road Warriors.
When Fajardo is at his game in the PBA, there’s really not one man – sometimes not even a double team – that could stop him.
And that seems to be what Austria would want to do for the rest of the year, which was so pronounced in the inaugurals that he didn’t even give former La Salle star Arnold Van Opstal a minute on the floor.
Austria said it himself during the winning coach’s interview.
“I asked my assistant coaches about them (rookies), and they said that they could definitely help (the team),” Austria said. “But we want to win this game because it has been years since we last won an opening game.
“I just used the players that I needed,” he concluded.
Van Opstal is a 6-foot-7 center who is definitely ripe for pro action and for him to not be able to even play a bit just when everyone was thinking that Fajardo now has a solid backup is certainly a disservice to his talent.
No one ever said that Van Opstal would be taking over Fajardo’s spot in the team, for no man in the league is qualified to do that.
But Austria simply showed that he will not veer away from his style, and with a long season ahead, it could just simply backfire.
***
“Pasensya na lang sila (I’m just sorry for them),” Austria said of his rookies, the other one being Fil-American Rashawn McCarthy.
“But our success (in the last two seasons) have come from these players,” Austria said of his veterans, whom he played an average of 38 minutes, with Lassiter on the floor the longest at 41.
The only time that Austria uses his other players longer than usual is when someone is injured, like Yancy de Ocampo, who takes over when Fajardo is indisposed and always does a good job at it.
But when Fajardo is OK, De Ocampo will never get more than a quarter’s worth of playing time.
These players will tire out in such a long season. While some compare the PBA with the NBA and that our local pro league has a far shorter schedule, our kind of basketball is more taxing than that of the NBA.
The NBA plays a regular season of 82 games, while the PBA goes for less than 50 in three conferences if a team fails to make it past the eliminations.
It is not an apples to apples comparison, though, as the NBA regulates everything from start of training camp in order to prolong the careers of its players as much as possible.
PBA teams, even though they are eliminated early, continue preparing for the next conference, or the next season, and give their players really short vacations to recharge and allow battered bodies to heal.
And the kind of training that players have at this day and age is simply more taxing than it was during the time of Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, etc.
Fajardo and the rest of San Miguel’s nucleus will feel the brunt of prolonged exposures during the playoff stages of each conference, and with the Beermen’s talent, they surely will be deep in the playoffs each time.
It certainly won’t hurt the team if the others get the chance to shine and it will serve two purposes – first is that the nucleus will be healthier for the grind where the stakes are higher, and second, it would allow the team to prepare for the future by having the young ones gain the experience.
But it’s not our call to make, Austria must have his reasons for doing so.
And because of the sheer power packed in its lineup, the second objective, and this is a bigger one but totally very early, is to become just the second team in league history to complete a Grand Slam.
Against Star on opening night last Sunday, the Beermen rallied from nine points down in the fourth period to prevail, not with complete authority but with much poise and calm down the stretch, something which could not be said of the Hotshots.
Though it was just the first game, coach Leo Austria talked with a lot of urgency in winning that game, which, this corner feels, could help make the Beermen fall short of those two objectives when this is all said and done.
June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot and Marcio Lassiter were made to play extended minutes and Austria, despite signing two celebrated rookies in the off-season, played just 10 men for that contest.
Austria’s coaching style is old school, and that is to play his best players as much as he could and grind out a win. He has been relatively successful with three titles in his first two seasons calling the shots.
But many experts feel that the strength of San Miguel lies in the depth of its bench, the kind of depth that can ease some of the load off of Fajardo and the rest of the core.
No one can argue with success, that’s a given.
But with a lineup that he has, and with Fajardo being the most dominant player in the last three years, some sincerely feel that those three championships could have easily been more.
***
San Miguel won the Philippine Cup the last two seasons because Fajardo is simply a class of his own. No offense to Barangay Ginebra’s Greg Slaughter or the veteran Asi Taulava of the NLEX Road Warriors.
When Fajardo is at his game in the PBA, there’s really not one man – sometimes not even a double team – that could stop him.
And that seems to be what Austria would want to do for the rest of the year, which was so pronounced in the inaugurals that he didn’t even give former La Salle star Arnold Van Opstal a minute on the floor.
Austria said it himself during the winning coach’s interview.
“I asked my assistant coaches about them (rookies), and they said that they could definitely help (the team),” Austria said. “But we want to win this game because it has been years since we last won an opening game.
“I just used the players that I needed,” he concluded.
Van Opstal is a 6-foot-7 center who is definitely ripe for pro action and for him to not be able to even play a bit just when everyone was thinking that Fajardo now has a solid backup is certainly a disservice to his talent.
No one ever said that Van Opstal would be taking over Fajardo’s spot in the team, for no man in the league is qualified to do that.
But Austria simply showed that he will not veer away from his style, and with a long season ahead, it could just simply backfire.
***
“Pasensya na lang sila (I’m just sorry for them),” Austria said of his rookies, the other one being Fil-American Rashawn McCarthy.
“But our success (in the last two seasons) have come from these players,” Austria said of his veterans, whom he played an average of 38 minutes, with Lassiter on the floor the longest at 41.
The only time that Austria uses his other players longer than usual is when someone is injured, like Yancy de Ocampo, who takes over when Fajardo is indisposed and always does a good job at it.
But when Fajardo is OK, De Ocampo will never get more than a quarter’s worth of playing time.
These players will tire out in such a long season. While some compare the PBA with the NBA and that our local pro league has a far shorter schedule, our kind of basketball is more taxing than that of the NBA.
The NBA plays a regular season of 82 games, while the PBA goes for less than 50 in three conferences if a team fails to make it past the eliminations.
It is not an apples to apples comparison, though, as the NBA regulates everything from start of training camp in order to prolong the careers of its players as much as possible.
PBA teams, even though they are eliminated early, continue preparing for the next conference, or the next season, and give their players really short vacations to recharge and allow battered bodies to heal.
And the kind of training that players have at this day and age is simply more taxing than it was during the time of Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, etc.
Fajardo and the rest of San Miguel’s nucleus will feel the brunt of prolonged exposures during the playoff stages of each conference, and with the Beermen’s talent, they surely will be deep in the playoffs each time.
It certainly won’t hurt the team if the others get the chance to shine and it will serve two purposes – first is that the nucleus will be healthier for the grind where the stakes are higher, and second, it would allow the team to prepare for the future by having the young ones gain the experience.
But it’s not our call to make, Austria must have his reasons for doing so.
