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.
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!
Not a fan of those small imports as well. People would rather pay to see 6'6" high flyers than 6'2" speedsters. The PBA was so dunk-deprived in that 3rd conference.
ReplyDeleteyeah actually. and for every arizona reid and jason forte incredible stat delivery, alpha bangura was claiming at least 20 points and a little over 7 rebounds.
ReplyDeletein this day and age it's a sin for imports to have even a 10-rebound game!