BARANGAY Ginebra is dealing with the losses of two key players as it unfurls the PBA 50th Season on Sunday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The Gin Kings go up against Magnolia in a Philippine Cup ‘Manila Clasico’ to open the league’s golden season at 7:30 p.m. right after the 49th Season Leo Awards and the 50th Season opening ceremony.
Ironically, one of the two players that are no longer in the squad is LA Tenorio, who has now took over Magnolia as its playing coach. Tenorio played 13 years with the Gin Kings and became one of the leaders of the squad.
READ: Stephen Holt signs three-year contract extension with Ginebra
Also leaving the Gin Kings during the offseason was Jamie Malonzo, who signed with Kyoto in the Japan B.League.
Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone said they are still adjusting to the absence of the two players.
“I feel like we are a little bit disjointed. We need to be more complementary with each other. That is something that will develop through the conference,” Cone said.
“We don’t have Jamie anymore so we are filling that void. Obviously, we don’t have LA so there’s a leadership void,” said Cone.
Fortunately for the crowd darlings, Stephen Holt is more than ready to step up as one of this team's leaders
“I think Stephen is doing a good job of stepping in to that leadership at this point. These are things that you have to overcome,” said Cone.
Despite the losses of two key players, Cone remains confident that Barangay Ginebra can contend for a title after two runner-ups and one semifinal appearances in the 49th Season, two campaigns of which ended in Game 7s – the Commissioner’s Cup finals against TNT and the Philippine Cup semifinals against eventual champion San Miguel.
“I don’t really look back too much,” said Cone. “We’re not going to be too worried about what happened to us there. We came close. We came about as close as you could come. A couple Game 7s, got knocked out by the eventual champions. You know, those Game 7s could have gone either way.”
“That’s really always a tough, tough way to lose, losing when it’s that close. But when you have some time and distance and you look back on it, we were right there. We are not too upset about where we are as a team at this point. And we know we can contend," he continued.
We know we can compete. And I just think that kind of stuff, you learn resilience. And you learn to keep battling. And I think our team will grow from those situations. And so, I think that those kind of things that happened to us last season will make us stronger going into this season. So I'm not too disappointed with that,” he added.
Scottie Thompson leads the attack for the Gin Kings as Japeth Aguilar will be missing the first few games of the Philippine Cup after undergoing surgery to repair a finger in his right hand.
With Tenorio no longer with the team, RJ Abarrientos will look to become a better facilitator after his rookie year in the league.
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