CIGNAL head coach Shaq delos Santos admitted entertaining the prospect of settling for the draft lottery if all else fails in the 2024-25 PVL All-Filipino Conference play-in tournament.
Losing to 10-seed Galeries Tower in the qualifying round was a shocker of an upset but delos Santos did see the star-studded draft as a silver lining Cignal can maximize in the next seasons.
READ: Cignal restores order as it vents ire on Capital1 in PVL play-ins
“To be honest, pumasok sa isip namin talaga,” delos Santos shared with SPIN.ph.
“Isa ‘yun sa good thing na pwedeng mangyayari. Parang good thing in a way pero hindi naman namin gustong mapunta du’n.”
“May advantage ka rin na maka-draft (nang maaga) especially ngayon, kung magpapa-draft lahat na players na competitive talaga. Sumagi talaga yun.”
The HD Spikers’ priority, however, is still a playoff spot now than a top four draft pick later.
Now that Cignal already has one foot on the door of the quarterfinals after taking down Capital1 to begin the play-ins, the only way delos Santos & Co. are looking at is onward to the immediate future over a rather distant one.
“Ako personally, hindi ako papayag na parang ganun na lang, sige, natalo kami dahil ang good thing kasi, may chance pa. For us, mas nag-focus kami dito sa last two games namin before mag-quarter-finals,” the Cignal head coach said.
“Hindi siya magiging madali pero nakapag-invest na kasi kami [at] nag-commit din naman yung mga players na, yun yung magiging mindset (na playoffs ang target).”
But in the event that Cignal squanders its quarters bid and ends up in the draft lottery, will delos Santos still consider it a long-haul win? Not really.
“Mixed talaga yung maiisip mo eh. Yun na lang (draft lottery) yung iisipin kapag hindi ka talaga pumasok. Yun na lang yung pwede mong option na plus pa rin naman para sa team.
“Mabigat para sa amin dahil, syempre, isang panalo na lang (kung sakali para makapasok sa playoffs) tapos mawawala pa. But, then again, ang pinaka-focus pa rin ay pumasok ulit sa quarterfinals.”
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