The Banal Project: Priority on bigs

While Alaska Aces lost its first game in the Philippine Cup to the mighty Barangay Ginebra Kings 72-83, owing to its new coaching philosophy, the future still looks brighter than ever for the Uytengsu franchise.  From the onset, the Aces fielded a formidable looking starting five with ace playmaker L.A. Tenorio, dazzling Cyrus Baguio, Tony de la Cruz and giants Jay-R Reyes and Sonny Thoss to battle the Kings' heavy guard play.

Of the five, de la Cruz is the only guy that fans could really classify as "aged" but that's only because he's been in the league a couple of years longer than the others. Tenorio, Reyes and Thoss are clearly the pillars for the future while Baguio provides the offensive spark that every competitive PBA needs. Off the bench, names such as rookie Mac Baracael and Eric Salamat are far from being classified as mere "role players" since the new recruits bring a lot of swagger on both ends of the floor.

It should be noted however that despite new head coach Joel Banal's attempts at appeasing the Aces' faithful, his team hardly ran the vaunted triple post/ triangle offense that has been the trademark of his predecessor Tim Cone. It's sad because, given the Reyes-Thoss combo, they have the right guys to run it ala the Los Angeles Lakers circa 2009-2011 did whenever Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum shared floorspace.

The Aces ran most of their offense through their big men which played a large factor in Tenorio and Baguio's combined 13 points (which is roughly around Tenorio's average alone). Fortunately, Thoss delivered with 16 but failed to get any support from partner Reyes who only had 4 points (but did haul down a lot of rebounds). Daresay that the team's best efforts came when Baracael was fielded into the game, easily complementing Sonny Thoss with short stabs from the weakside (the same way he did while with SMART Gilas whenever Serbian head coach Rajko Toroman asked him to play PF beside Marcus Douthit).

Will Banal duplicate half the success of Cone? That remains to be seen, I honestly doubt it at this rate unless Alaska starts getting huge stars and the league does away with off-court financial politicking.

Are the Aces going to contend?

I'd be surprised if they break through this conference, and feel that if ever they do, then it will be Sonny Thoss leading the way instead of Tenorio much like how Banal coached the Ateneo 2002 champion team behind Rico Villanueva.

On a side note, is Brandon Cablay really the best that the Aces have to offer off the bench? They did draft Pasculado and Salamat right?

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