CHRIS Ross believes the many import changes San Miguel made in the course of the Governors' Cup weighed down its bi to make it to three straight PBA Finals.
San Miguel brought it no less than four imports over a two-month span in the Governors Cup and each time the import obviously had to get adjusted tothe Beermen's playbook in a short period of time.
Thankfully, San Miguel had a strong core that skillfully managed the constant import changes. The team easily made it to the playoffs, but the cracks starte to show when it was dragged to a deciding Game Five by big underdog Converge in the quarterfinals.
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Eventually, the crack became a chasm against a disciplined Barangay Ginebra squad which rode on the heroics of Justine Brownlee, it's almost homegrown import, and lost, 4-2, in the semifinals.
While EJ Anosike turned out fine for the team, the 25-year-old member of the Nigerian men’s national basketball team didn’t come on board until the start of the playoffs, to be specific, about 24 hours before Game One of the Beermen’s quarterfinals series against Converge.
That alone compromised chemistry and cohesion on the part of San Miguel, according to Ross.
“There’s just so much change. It’s just so much change. We went through four imports, and then the coaches trying to find combinations that work,” explained Ross, a playing-assistant coach for San Miguel, when asked what went wrong with the team’s campaign.
The 39-year-old Ross didn’t need to go far to stress his point, citing how Ginebra with Brownlee, TNT with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Rain or Shine with Aaron Fuller played with their respective imports right from the very start of the conference.
“We come against a team like Ginebra, and they know what they're doing. They have their rotation, they have their import, so it's like kind of riding a bike for them,” he said.
“They know what they're gonna do going into the game. With us, we're just trying to figure out what’s gonna happen.”
San Miguel initially went for Taurus Jogela as its original import choice, but the Lithuanian was already gone even before Season 49 could start. Then came Jordan Adams following his stint in Indonesia.
Adams appeared to be a perfect fit for the Beermen, but surprisingly, was relegated to the injury/reserved list after five games. The team then took in Sheldon Mac.
Coach Jorge Gallent said the change was in anticipation of the bigger scenario where San Miguel could face Brownlee and Hollis-Jefferson down the road.
With both imports playing the wings more often than not, the Beermen thought it would be better to have someone with the same skills rather than having Adams, who mostly operated inside.
But Mac turned out to be a dud and hardly made his presence felt in a 119-114 victory that proved to be his first and only game with the franchise.
In came Adams anew as he finished the rest of the group stage with the Beermen leading to the playoffs.
Adams injury
Unfortunately, Adams had a hamstring injury that was in danger of becoming a total tear if he played on. The team then finally landed Anosike.
The Beermen initially looked solid after racing to a 2-0 lead against Converge in the quarterfinals, but began to display vulnerability after the FiberXers scored a breakthrough win in Games 3 and 4 and came close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in league history until losing in the waning seconds of their sudden-death game.
Against Brownlee and the Kings, the Beermen finally imploded, ending a run of back-to-back finals appearances highlighted by a championship in the Season 48 edition of the Commissioner’s Cup.
“I don't know...I feel like since we won the championship, we've had so much change on our team,” said Ross. “It's just I guess a transformation from what we had to what we are now.”
Asked any positive takes on their campaign, Ross answered on the negative.
“There's none. We lost, there's none,” he said.
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