THE Bay Area Dragons have created a buzz with their clean slate in tuneup games heading into their participation as guest team in the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The Dragons have won eight straight games against PBA teams and college squads, putting the guests in the early title conversation.
Northern Consolidated, a team composed of national team players under the program of Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco and coached by Ron Jacobs, has the distinction of being the last guest team to win a championship, topping the PBA's 1985 Reinforced Conference.
The first and only foreign team, however, to win a PBA crown was back in the 1980 Invitational when Nicholas Stoodley from the US defeated Toyota in the finals.
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For assistant coach Bill Tomlinson, however, he is not yet convinced that the Dragons can contend in the Commissioner’s Cup.
“We are a new team,” said Tomlinson, one of the assistant coaches of Brian Goorjian, the concurrent national squad coach of Australia, in the team. “We must play our best every game. We are still trying to lay a foundation.”
Bay Area is composed of players from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau who will also be playing in the East Asia Super League. One of their notable players is 7-foot-5 Liu Chuanxing, who has already played for the Chinese national team.
The Dragons also have some reinforcements in Myles Powell, a product of Seton Hall who played briefly for the Philadelphia 76ers last season, and Andrew Nicholson, who also had NBA experience but spent his most recent career in China and Korea.
The Bay Area Dragons may have to drop one import.
Tomlinson admitted that while they are 8-0 thus far in the tune-up games, the Dragons have yet to face the likes of San Miguel and TNT, which recently figured in the finals of the Philippine Cup.
The Dragons said they would love to face teams like the Beermen and the Tropang Giga, but they may not have that option since both squads are on a break after a grueling Philippine Cup finals.
“We haven’t really scouted a lot of teams yet. We did watch the finals series and we haven’t met that level of play yet. We have been playing the teams, they are really good, from the top third down. We are looking forward to the San Miguels and the Talk N’ Texts. That’s a different level,” said Tomlinson.
Jury still out
The jury is still out for the Dragons. For his part, NLEX interim coach Adonis Tierra said the Dragons, despite their impressive preseason, have their work cut out for them.
“For me, honestly, hindi pa ito magiging contender para sa akin,” said Tierra, whose team lost to Bay Area, 111-104, on Friday for the Dragons’ eighth preseason win. “Sa nakikita ko sa ngayon, hindi mo alam ang tendencies. Kagaya nung Nicholson, akala ko nasa poste lang pero most of the time, he takes the shot from the threes. ‘Yung ibang mga guards nila, hindi masyadong scorer. Eventually, alam mo naman mga PBA coaches, ‘yung mga coaches, maiiscout na nila ‘yan. Hindi pa siya kakatakutan ng team,” said Tierra.
“Nananalo, natural lang ‘yun. Pero ako personally, hindi ako worried sa kanila,” said Tierra. “Once naglaro na sila sa PBA, kahit one or two games, next game, medyo iba na usapan diyan.”
The Dragons may also not have a full squad in the Commissioner’s Cup. SPIN.ph learned that Bay Area might be playing with a single import, meaning that the Dragons might need to choose between Powell and Nicholson for the conference.
Cholo Villanueva, appointed as one of the assistant coaches to help the Dragons in their PBA and EASL stints, agreed that it will still be a process for the newly-formed squad. But with time, he believes that Bay Area can contend with the best of the league.
“It’s just a preseason. We are working on things na we need to work on on offense and defense. We still have a long way to go. We are just playing tune-up games. We want to know how we are going to go up against PBA teams. If we are for real na we can compete, yes, we can compete with the best of them in the PBA,” he added.
Unlike their squad, Tomlinson said the advantage of PBA teams is that they play three tournaments a year, creating camaraderie over the course of the competition.
“Those teams play three leagues in one year and they play all year round. We just got these guys together and the same with the teams we are playing. We take the win and we are happy that we play hard. [But] we are not fooling ourselves that 8-0 is what’s going to be,” said Tomlinson.
For them to contend in the Commissioner’s Cup, Tomlinson said the team is putting premium on defense against the PBA style of play.
“We are a little bit bigger and slower and our ability to keep the Filipino players in front of us. We are working on our footwork because the PBA style is drive, drive, and drive and they are quick. Our one-on-one defense is our priority. We gave up too many second shots [during the tune-up game against NLEX]. We’ve got to rebound. We don’t want to sit down at the end of the day and say, we lost the ball because we couldn’t keep people in front of us and we couldn’t rebound,” said Tomlinson.
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