Saturday, April 08, 2006
New System for Ginebra
Last Friday, after the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings won a close game over the Coca-Cola Tigers, 84-81, in the ongoing eliminations at the PBA Philippine Cup, Ginebra coach Siot Tanquincen told the media that the Kings are trying out a new system after they lost to Red Bull in the last PBA Fiesta Conference. Yesterday's game against the Alaska Aces was witness to the new system that Ginebra's trying and struggling to implement.
Ginebra's old system focused on their big men at the post. Ginebra's strength has always been in the post with big men, Eric Menk, Romel Adducul, then import Chris Porter, and Andy Seigle manning the paint. However, in the semifinals match against Red Bull, the Bulls had the post covered so well by double-teaming each post player (I saw how Chris Porter struggled on each possession) causing Ginebra to bleed, missing those seemingly easy high percentage shots. I hate to admit it, but Enrico Villanueva did a good job of defending Eric Menk, Romel Adducul, and even Chris Porter. The norm against the double team is passing the ball to the open man, but Ginebra's jumpshooters couldn't shoot the ball (remember how Jayjay Helterbrand was 1/8 from the floor in Game 7 of the Fiesta Conference last Feb 5, 2006?). Also, in that semifinals match, as far as I can remember, Ginebra's guards couldn't drive to the basket because of Red Bull's pesky defense.
In Ginebra's three game skid against San Miguel Beermen, Purefoods Chunkee Giants, we saw a struggle for shots by the Ginebra camp, hence the low scores: 59 against SMB and 56 against PF. Aside from the fact that Menk (2/10 FG against SMB and 2/14 against PF) was injured at that time and that Romel Adducul was struggling at the post (1/6 FG against SMB and 1/4 FG against PF), Ginebra went to its post players despite the suffocating defense thrown at them. Horrible. Siot Tanquincen would later claim that it was a toss between implementing the old system involving more postplays and their new system. Ginebra lost to Air21 Express again, but I wasn't able to watch that game (OMG!) neither live nor on TV.
Ginebra barely escaped Coca-Cola last Friday, March 31, 2006. I didn't watched the game except for the last two minutes (after I woke up), but Siot would later tell the media that they implemented the new system and "it's up to the other teams to find out what that system is." Maybe I'll consider Ginebra to be lucky on that day when the breaks of the game went to Ginebra's favor as Dale Singson pulled costly turnovers and hurried shots. Ginebra won 83-80 after Mark Caguioa sealed the win with two freethrows off a foul by Dale Singson.
Then came Ginebra's game against the Aces. As Quinito "the Dean" Henson explained, Ginebra shifted from post-plays to a guard-oriented offense led by Mark Caguioa, Jayjay Helterbrand, and Kalani Ferreria (with Sunday Salvacion and Rodney Santos coming off the bench) with Eric Menk and rookie Mike Holper - far from their usual tall line-up of Adducul-Menk-Holper-Caguioa-Helterbrand.
The guard play is similar to what Red Bull is doing with their wingmen Larry Fonacier, Lordy Tugade, Cyrus Baguio, and Diego... err.. Junthy Valenzuela. Remember back in Game 7 of the PBA Fiesta Conference Semifinals back in Feb 5, 2006? Ginebra's guards scored only 33 against Red Bull's 54.
Even if they were downed by Alaska in the first quarter as the Aces led by as much as 10 points, Ginebra noticeably never went to the post, and moved the ball around as if each player had touched and passed the ball in each possession. It was notable that Ginebra relied on its outside shooting than post plays. Well, when did you ever see Romel Adducul take jumpshots? Of his three field goals in that game (against eight attempts), two came from outside the paint (well, his free throw is another story as he muffed all of his two free throws in that game). Eric Menk was seen driving to the basket more than he posted up. The style of Ginebra was to take more outside shots, to let the big men do the rebounding and to have a lot of passing and ball rotation. Trigger-happy Mark Caguioa had 25 points, mostly coming from fadeaway shots off a post play with Jeffrey Cariaso.
Ginebra though, didn't play rotate their men: from a 10 man rotation which included shock troopers Mark Macapagal, Aris Dimaunahan, and Ervin Sotto, Ginebra played with only eight players, with Sunday Salvacion, Rodney Santos, and Romel Adducul coming off the bench. The risk though was that all of Ginebra's big men go into foul trouble with at least five each by the end of the fourth quarter, and tiring its major players - Menk, Caguioa, and Helterbrand each had played at least 45 minutes in that game. (No one has beaten Jaworski though for playing ALL minutes with 3 overtimes when he was 40 years old.) To make things worse, Ginebra lost Rodney Santos midway through the fourth quarter to a knee injury. Somehow, Rodney's injury crippled Ginebra's guard rotation, forcing Sunday Salvacion to play unusually extended minutes to fill Santos' gap.
Still, I can say that Ginebra got lucky with its win over Alaska. It's not easy to adjust to a new system, just like what happened to San Miguel last 2006 PBA Fiesta Conference. The Beermen almost finished deadlast while trying to implement a new system. Ginebra got away with it because of Alaska's turnovers towards the end of the game courtesy of Tony dela Cruz (poor guy, he missed the shot that could have won it for Alaska instead of going to overtime, and then he turned the ball over as the ball went between his legs off a pass from Jeffrey Cariaso in the dying seconds of the first overtime, and finally, Sunday Salvacion shot a triple in his face), Nic Belasco's rebound that he lost off his foot and rolled out of bounds in the last two minutes of overtime.
Sunday Salvacion's saving grace on that Sunday evening
This one's for Rodney!
The problem with this system is concentrating the offense too much on the guards. I'm sure other teams will find a way to stop the guards of the Gin Kings. Gang rebounding by other teams may work against Ginebra since this system seems to make them too small compared to other teams (and this sytem would require Eric Menk to substitute for Romel Adducul and vice versa). Also, the risk for Ginebra is that they're shooting more from the outside rather than in the paint. What if their shots don't fall as desired? Other teams may exploit Ginebra's relatively small line-up when it's Ginebra's turn to play defense.
What's nice about this system is that Ginebra can run again, with three guards on the floor at the same time. It was nice watching Helterbrand, Caguioa, and Ferreria running at the same time in that game against Alaska. This system involves everyone rather than having just one or two passes between the post player and the passer. Should Ginebra's gunners connect from outside, the defense would extend on them, and this would give more opportunities for the post players to operate inside the paint. In this passing game, the offense won't be as predictable as before. Again, who would have thought that Romel Adducul would shoot two baskets from outside the paint? Or when was the last time Eric Menk drove into the lane rather than posting up?
Changes to the existing system may bring growing pains to Ginebra. It may bring frustrating losses as well, or possibly winless games in the approaching second half of this Philippine Cup tourney. It will be up to Ginebra's players to believe in their new system and adjust to their new roles in this system and possibly give justice to the word "System" - a term used for "a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole".
"This is you, this is you, this is you ha" was the old system impemented by old Ginebra great Robert Jaworski.
Go Ginebra! Payt payt payt!
Ginebra's old system focused on their big men at the post. Ginebra's strength has always been in the post with big men, Eric Menk, Romel Adducul, then import Chris Porter, and Andy Seigle manning the paint. However, in the semifinals match against Red Bull, the Bulls had the post covered so well by double-teaming each post player (I saw how Chris Porter struggled on each possession) causing Ginebra to bleed, missing those seemingly easy high percentage shots. I hate to admit it, but Enrico Villanueva did a good job of defending Eric Menk, Romel Adducul, and even Chris Porter. The norm against the double team is passing the ball to the open man, but Ginebra's jumpshooters couldn't shoot the ball (remember how Jayjay Helterbrand was 1/8 from the floor in Game 7 of the Fiesta Conference last Feb 5, 2006?). Also, in that semifinals match, as far as I can remember, Ginebra's guards couldn't drive to the basket because of Red Bull's pesky defense.
In Ginebra's three game skid against San Miguel Beermen, Purefoods Chunkee Giants, we saw a struggle for shots by the Ginebra camp, hence the low scores: 59 against SMB and 56 against PF. Aside from the fact that Menk (2/10 FG against SMB and 2/14 against PF) was injured at that time and that Romel Adducul was struggling at the post (1/6 FG against SMB and 1/4 FG against PF), Ginebra went to its post players despite the suffocating defense thrown at them. Horrible. Siot Tanquincen would later claim that it was a toss between implementing the old system involving more postplays and their new system. Ginebra lost to Air21 Express again, but I wasn't able to watch that game (OMG!) neither live nor on TV.
Ginebra barely escaped Coca-Cola last Friday, March 31, 2006. I didn't watched the game except for the last two minutes (after I woke up), but Siot would later tell the media that they implemented the new system and "it's up to the other teams to find out what that system is." Maybe I'll consider Ginebra to be lucky on that day when the breaks of the game went to Ginebra's favor as Dale Singson pulled costly turnovers and hurried shots. Ginebra won 83-80 after Mark Caguioa sealed the win with two freethrows off a foul by Dale Singson.
Then came Ginebra's game against the Aces. As Quinito "the Dean" Henson explained, Ginebra shifted from post-plays to a guard-oriented offense led by Mark Caguioa, Jayjay Helterbrand, and Kalani Ferreria (with Sunday Salvacion and Rodney Santos coming off the bench) with Eric Menk and rookie Mike Holper - far from their usual tall line-up of Adducul-Menk-Holper-Caguioa-Helterbrand.
The guard play is similar to what Red Bull is doing with their wingmen Larry Fonacier, Lordy Tugade, Cyrus Baguio, and Diego... err.. Junthy Valenzuela. Remember back in Game 7 of the PBA Fiesta Conference Semifinals back in Feb 5, 2006? Ginebra's guards scored only 33 against Red Bull's 54.
Even if they were downed by Alaska in the first quarter as the Aces led by as much as 10 points, Ginebra noticeably never went to the post, and moved the ball around as if each player had touched and passed the ball in each possession. It was notable that Ginebra relied on its outside shooting than post plays. Well, when did you ever see Romel Adducul take jumpshots? Of his three field goals in that game (against eight attempts), two came from outside the paint (well, his free throw is another story as he muffed all of his two free throws in that game). Eric Menk was seen driving to the basket more than he posted up. The style of Ginebra was to take more outside shots, to let the big men do the rebounding and to have a lot of passing and ball rotation. Trigger-happy Mark Caguioa had 25 points, mostly coming from fadeaway shots off a post play with Jeffrey Cariaso.
Ginebra though, didn't play rotate their men: from a 10 man rotation which included shock troopers Mark Macapagal, Aris Dimaunahan, and Ervin Sotto, Ginebra played with only eight players, with Sunday Salvacion, Rodney Santos, and Romel Adducul coming off the bench. The risk though was that all of Ginebra's big men go into foul trouble with at least five each by the end of the fourth quarter, and tiring its major players - Menk, Caguioa, and Helterbrand each had played at least 45 minutes in that game. (No one has beaten Jaworski though for playing ALL minutes with 3 overtimes when he was 40 years old.) To make things worse, Ginebra lost Rodney Santos midway through the fourth quarter to a knee injury. Somehow, Rodney's injury crippled Ginebra's guard rotation, forcing Sunday Salvacion to play unusually extended minutes to fill Santos' gap.
Still, I can say that Ginebra got lucky with its win over Alaska. It's not easy to adjust to a new system, just like what happened to San Miguel last 2006 PBA Fiesta Conference. The Beermen almost finished deadlast while trying to implement a new system. Ginebra got away with it because of Alaska's turnovers towards the end of the game courtesy of Tony dela Cruz (poor guy, he missed the shot that could have won it for Alaska instead of going to overtime, and then he turned the ball over as the ball went between his legs off a pass from Jeffrey Cariaso in the dying seconds of the first overtime, and finally, Sunday Salvacion shot a triple in his face), Nic Belasco's rebound that he lost off his foot and rolled out of bounds in the last two minutes of overtime.
Sunday Salvacion's saving grace on that Sunday evening
This one's for Rodney!
The problem with this system is concentrating the offense too much on the guards. I'm sure other teams will find a way to stop the guards of the Gin Kings. Gang rebounding by other teams may work against Ginebra since this system seems to make them too small compared to other teams (and this sytem would require Eric Menk to substitute for Romel Adducul and vice versa). Also, the risk for Ginebra is that they're shooting more from the outside rather than in the paint. What if their shots don't fall as desired? Other teams may exploit Ginebra's relatively small line-up when it's Ginebra's turn to play defense.
What's nice about this system is that Ginebra can run again, with three guards on the floor at the same time. It was nice watching Helterbrand, Caguioa, and Ferreria running at the same time in that game against Alaska. This system involves everyone rather than having just one or two passes between the post player and the passer. Should Ginebra's gunners connect from outside, the defense would extend on them, and this would give more opportunities for the post players to operate inside the paint. In this passing game, the offense won't be as predictable as before. Again, who would have thought that Romel Adducul would shoot two baskets from outside the paint? Or when was the last time Eric Menk drove into the lane rather than posting up?
Changes to the existing system may bring growing pains to Ginebra. It may bring frustrating losses as well, or possibly winless games in the approaching second half of this Philippine Cup tourney. It will be up to Ginebra's players to believe in their new system and adjust to their new roles in this system and possibly give justice to the word "System" - a term used for "a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole".
"This is you, this is you, this is you ha" was the old system impemented by old Ginebra great Robert Jaworski.
Go Ginebra! Payt payt payt!
