2014-15 San Miguel Beermen Primer

2013-14 Standings: SMB

Players Lost: Chico Lanete (dispersal draft), Sam Marata (Free Agent)
2014 Draft Pick: #3 pick: Ronald Pascual
Players Added: Ronald Pascual (Rookie Draft)

2014 Projected Depth Chart:

The Bandwagon Wire Says

San Miguel coaching carousel alert! If you thought the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel team had the worst coaching carousel over the last 5 years, the Beermen arguably has a much worse coaching turnover compared to their sister team. Here’s the list of the team’s coaches over the last 2 years (NOTE: Ginebra had 4 coaches in 5 years)

Let’s do some math! The PBA has 3 conferences per season. During the 38^th and 39^th season of the PBA, the Beermen had 4 coaches. Technically, the franchise changed coaches once every conference and a half! And we haven’t even included TODD PURVES into the mix! Oh wait, he’s here lurking in the shadows.

Now with Coach Leo Austria at the helm, who we at the Bandwagon Wire worship, finally the team has a no non-sense coach who won’t give a damn about player egos.

Storylines

Whatever happened to Chris Lutz?

Chris Lutz. The #3 pick in the 2011 PBA Draft. Former Men’s Basketball National Team member.

Last season was not a good year for Chris Lutz. Oh wait, it was a terrible year for Lutz! It’s as if the guy aged 5 years after having an efficient 2011-12 campaign. He even got his wish to be paired with his closest friend from the National Team program Marcio Lassiter. Here are Lutz’s averages from last season compared to 2 years ago:

Even though Lutz played a tad more minutes last season, his overall efficiency went down. Even his deadly midrange shooting was nowhere to be seen. To properly stretch the floor, the Beermen badly need Lutz to knock-down jumpers and slash to the rim.

The Kraken vs. Spiderman

Being just 24 years young, June Mar Fajardo is without a doubt the best player in Philippine basketball today. He is the gem of, not only the San Miguel Beermen, but of the men’s basketball national team program. Last season was just the 1^st of many most valuable player trophies the gentle giant will receive in his lifetime.

However, there’s another alpha dog in the SMB franchise. The PBA Most Valuable Player from 2 seasons ago, Arwind Santos. Let’s compare the season’s of Fajardo and Santos last year in this edition of HEAD-TO-HEAD:

Going into year 3 of the Fajardo-Santos combination, the combination has only given the franchise 2 semifinals appearances. The entire franchise had to trade stretch forward Jay Washington and SMB-mainstay Dorian Pena just to accommodate the combination. We’ll take a look at how this combination just does not mesh well in a future edition of Stats Don’t Lie.

2014 Philippine Cup Prediction

So will the SMB soap opera end this conference? With the hiring of Coach Austria, the opera will surely end this season… but not this conference. Our prediction?

Our prediction: 6^th place after the elimination round, eliminated in the quarterfinals

 2014-15 PBA Philippine Cup Primers