BARANGAY Ginebra San Miguel’s first conference under new Head Coach Tim Cone was quite an achievement—the Gin Kings reached the quarterfinals despite the limited time for them to adapt to Cone’s system.
And Cone hopes the Kings have learned so much from that small window and utilize what they learned when Ginebra begins its campaign in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup against NLEX on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Kings and Road Warriors collide in the main game at 7 p.m., right after the opening tussle between Mahindra ang GlobalPort at 4:15 p.m.
“Our immediate goal is to get off to a quicker start but with Greg [Slaughter] down with measles and possibly missing the first two games, we’ll be hard-pressed to reach that goal,” Cone said.
“Still, we have a lot of faith in our depth and the guys we have. We feel there is a good chance we won’t miss a beat. Just like everybody, we’re excited for the start of the conference,” he added.
After leading Star to five titles, including a rare grand slam in the 2013-2014 season, Cone was tasked by San Miguel Corp. to handle the underachieving Kings who last won a PBA title in the 2008 Fiesta Conference.
Ginebra tapped former Talk ‘N Text import Othyus Jeffers for the midseason conference. At 6-foot-5 to be the shortest among the reinforcements in the tournament, Jeffers played just one game with Tropang Texters in 2014 Governors’ Cup to answer a call from the National Basketball Association (NBA).
“He’s the kind of guy who can play with Greg [Slaughter] and Japeth [Aguilar] and he’s still powerful enough as power forward that he could play with Greg or Japeth. He gives us a little bit of versatility and that’s what we’re looking for,” Cone said.
Jeffers will be pitted against former NBA veteran Al Thornton, who is returning to reinforce NLEX.
The Batang Pier, meanwhile, hope to pick up from what they left off in the Philippine Cup. GlobalPort reached a milestone when they made the semifinals of the Philippine Cup before losing to Alaska in five games.
Head Coach Pido Jarencio tapped Brian Williams, a regular campaigner in the Asean Basketball League (ABL), as their import.
The University of Tennessee product Williams played for Wesport Malaysia Dragons and the San Miguel Beermen in the 2013 ABL.
Mahindra, on the other hand, is testing August Gilchrist, a former University of South Florida big man who is coming off a stint in Cyprus. The Enforcers’ original choice, seven-foot Hamady N’Diaye, was not available for the conference.