Tuesday, April 17, 2012
After two conferences, Joel Banal has ceded his coaching
chores to Luigi Trillo.
On the heels of two decades of Tim Cone, how fast was this change?
Something’s up a few days back
when Trillo had to give up his Cebuana
Lhuillier Gems coaching duties. And then there’s uproar on Twitter that one head coach will “step
down”. Social media is littered with information but also infested with false
news.
But I guess this news was true.
And how fast was this change?
Don’t give that nepotism shit
on this choice. Trillo might be longtime Alaska Team Manager Joaqui Trillo’s
son, but he earned his spurs after years of learning the tricks of the trade
from one of the finest minds in the league’s history.
It’s not like Banal did bad.
Sure Alaska missed the Philippine Cup
playoffs but they were able to reach the quarterfinals. Their Big Three of LA Tenorio, Cyrus Baguio, and Sonny Thoss
are fantastic but the rest of the squad needs work. There is a problem on their
bench production because some of the players aren’t developing the way they
thought we could.
And where the hell is Julius Pasculado?
Wait… this is not my rookie
rankings list.
This former DLSU Green Archer
is famous for leading the Adamson
Soaring Falcons to a Final Four finish with Ken Bono, Roel Hugnatan, and Mark Abadia in tow. He recently
coached the Gems, who placed second in the PBA
D-League’s inaugural season. What he had during that stint are current
Alaska reserve player Ariel Mepana,
former Alaska second round pick Marvin
Hayes, ABL mainstays Vaughn Canta
and Benedict Fernandez, and current Air21 slotman James Sena.
Luigi Trillo will not change
the current Alaska system. I think the best way to exalt change in their system
is by having a coach who has seen better days outside the triangle system. I
can even see Trillo use the many plays he learned from Tim Cone as his default
system. This is the awesomeness of Tim Cone’s system – it’s hard to learn and
hard to dispatch. Trillo though should make several adjustments that will fuse
the old system with the new. He also needs to pad his bench that will likely
happen in the 2012 PBA Draft. Even
if they can’t get Junmar Fajardo,
they should claim either Chris Ellis or
Cliff Hodge – two players that can boost the slasher and shooter roles of
the team.
But this looking beyond the Governor’s Cup crap ends here. One nice
claim Alaska did was the re-acquisition of Jason
Forte for the conference. Forte should boost the team’s rebounding that
they greatly need. There is also a certain familiarity between him and the
other players. One player he needs to rely on is LA Tenorio. The key playmaker is a big-time cog but might be on the way out if Alaska camp can't give him a competent roster.
Hopefully Trillo could produce
the results Alaska team owner Wilfred
Stephen Uytengsu wants.
Because if he can’t…
Dickie Bachmann…
batter up!
Game over!
