Goodbye small imports!

I just heard the wonderful news.

The era of small imports... is now DEAD!

YEAH!

While the Commissioner’s Cup and Governor’s Cup brought in a bunch of reliable hands like Arizona Reid, Paul Harris, Nate Brumfield, and Jason Forte, those conferences also brought in small imports that couldn’t intimidate our big locals. These men were not bulky and were tortured endlessly by not Beau Belga or Marc Pingris but by LA Tenorio and Alex Cabagnot! Remember when imports matter? Even NBA tenured players Hassan Adams, Chris Porter, and Anthony Grundy looked like a bunch of extremely-talented locals when pitted against our players. 

I don't have an issue against height. I have an issue though with how an import's all-around-ness is affected by height. If the Smart-All-Star Weekend thought us something, it is that we remained unfazed at the sight of Kobe Bryant and his other NBA cronies. 


We were at awe seeing Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, and the rest of the NBA stars that went here. 


But when they battled Smart-Gilas with pride at stake... 


... we were bent to humiliate them. 

So what makes the league think that 6'2 players that can't cut a NBA deal would scare the hell out of our players? 

One might say that Grundy did his best and must be commended by his superb performance in the 2011 PBA Governor’s Cup Finals.  

In his stint with the Petron Blaze Boosters, Grundy averaged 23.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 6.0 assists. Shawn Daniels, the import in the 2010 Fiesta Conference with the worst output, was good for 12.9 points, 13.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.8 steals, and 2.0 blocks.

But if you look at it, Daniels is better than Grundy.

Grundy albeit making smart decisions, is a guard. He cannot force the issue in the middle and guys like Sonny Thoss, Marc Pingris, and even Larry Rodriguez will give him a hard time. If you compare Petron’s Fiesta Cup import Gabe Freeman over Grundy, I’d choose Freeman.

This is the main problem I have with the current flock of imports.

Here are the top imports of the past PBA season. I’m not going to based this on how many games they played but on their game stats. You’re going to see names of players you don’t know that even played in that conference because of the briefness of their tenure.

TOP 5 IMPORTS

2011 PBA COMMISSIONER’S CUP

Maximum height: 6’4

1 RUSSEL CARTER / POWERADE

24.2PPG – 14.0RPG – 5.4APG – 1.2SPG – 5 GAMES

2 ROBERT BROWN / B-MEG

29.0PPG – 11.0RPG – 2.0APG – 2.0SPG – 1 GAME

3 IRA BROWN / SAN MIGUEL

24.0PPG – 11.0RPG – 4.0APG – 2.5SPG – 1.5BPG – 2 GAMES

4 CHAMP OGUCHI / MERALCO

30.7PPG – 10.5RPG – 2.0APG – 6 GAMES

5.5 NATE BRUMFIELD / GINEBRA

24.7PPG – 12.0RPG – 3.5APG – 1.6SPG – 22 GAMES

5.5 PAUL HARRIS / TALK N TEXT

25.7PPG – 11.3RPG – 1.7APG – 18 GAMES

Rounding out the best to worst imports in the 2011 PBA Commissioner’s Cup are as follows:

David Young, Martin Zeno, Alpha Bangura, Tony Dandridge, Hassan Adams, LD Williams, Courtney Beasley, Shamari Spears, and Jeremy Robinson.

TOP 5 IMPORTS

2011 PBA GOVERNOR’S CUP

Maximum height:

For Powerade: 6’6

For Alaska, Air21, Meralco, and Rain or Shine: 6’4

For Talk N Text, Ginebra, B-Meg and Petron: 6’2

1 ARIZONA REID / RAIN OR SHINE

28.7PPG – 15.4RPG – 4.2APG – 1.0SPG – 12 GAMES

2 TIM PICKETT / MERALCO

23.7PPG – 11.0RPG – 6.3APG – 1.7SPG – 3 GAMES

3 JASON FORTE / ALASKA

23.1PPG – 15.4RPG – 3.8APG – 1.2BPG – 13 GAMES

4 CURTIS STINSON / GINEBRA

21.3PPG – 10.0RPG – 9.5APG – 1.8SPG – 4 GAMES

5 CHRIS PORTER / POWERADE

20.8PPG – 14.9RPG – 2.5APG – 2.6SPG – 8 GAMES

Rounding out the best to worst imports in the 2011 PBA Governor’s Cup are as follows:

Anthony Grundy, Champ Oguchi, Donald Sloan, Jeremy Wise, Darnell Hinson, Alpha Bangura, Stefhon Hannah, Scottie Reynolds, Maurice Baker, Myron Allen, and Ricky Harris.

In all, 31 imports suited up in the PBA’s 2010-11 season and these players don’t hold a candle to their 2009-10 counterparts.

TOP 5 IMPORTS

2010 PBA FIESTA CONFERENCE  

Maximum height: 6’6  

1 LEROY HICKERSON / AIR21

32.8PPG – 14.2RPG – 4.8APG – 6 GAMES

2 DIAMON SIMPSON / ALASKA

25.4PPG – 16.4RPG – 2.8APG – 1.4SPG – 1.9BPG – 32 GAMES

3 ANTHONY JOHNSON / STA. LUCIA

29.2PPG – 13.4RPG – 2.6APG – 0.9SPG – 1.4BPG – 19 GAMES

4 RASHAD BELL / COCA-COLA

28.0PPG – 13.2RPG – 4.0APG – 1.2SPG – 1.6BPG – 5 GAMES

5 JAMES PENNY / COCA-COLA

26.2PPG – 13.8RPG – 2.2APG – 1.2SPG – 2.3BPG – 9 GAMES

Okay.

So basing on this, there is no difference.

But there is. I’m just not there yet.

Filipinos are small and need to play small ball. This is why we naturalized Marcus Douthit after failed attempts with CJ Giles and Jamal Sampson. With the new rule, the Commissioner Cup’s imports will have unlimited ceiling while the Governor’s Cup imports will have a maximum of 6’5. This is great because with the return of the imposing imports, I will again see reinforcements doing what they need to do in the first place.

Get rebounds.

Like I said, in an instant I will choose Daniels over Grundy. Gone are the days when imports are scoring 40 points a night. However, imports need to claim at least 20 points and 13 boards to really be important. Daniels will never let the other team’s bigs slip off his radar and make a pussy off him (although his last stint in the league was far from stellar). If you look at the Governor’s Cup imports, Reid and Forte dominated because they can score and rebound which for guys like Scottie Reynolds is hard to do.

Curtis Stinson would have been a cut from the rest because he can produce triple-double numbers but because of the PBA bump and grind, he got injured.

If you remember Chot Reyes’ reaction when he said Reynolds was playing like a glorified local? Daniels, who was never called a scoring threat, was never called as such because Daniels gave the Texters a bulge in the middle that is feared by opponents and loved by his teammates. Marcus Douthit can play for the Tropang Texters as an import because he is now naturalized. He will follow the same ruling Alex Compton and Chris Clay had when they played as imports a couple of years back.

Don’t fret though.

Sure Douthit will play...

But imagine him pitting his wares against Chris Alexander?

Like I said, with this development... I am a happy camper.

Game over!