Arwind Santos wants Northport to be like his former team San Miguel and be an elite team in the PBA one day.
After the Batang Pier ended their 2022 Philippine Cup campaign at 10th place at just 3-8, the 6-foot-4 stretch forward hopes his team will be capable of having multiple offensive threats up until the third stringers.
Aside from Santos, superstars Robert Bolick and Jamie Malonzo, only Roi Sumang and Kevin Ferrer averaged double digits in scoring in the conference.
“Kanina sa game namin wala pa si Jamie, wala pa si Bolick so anong mangyayari? Alam na ng kalaban kung saan babagsak ang bola,” said Santos after their last game, a 109-95 loss to NLEX. “Kung hindi nila alam kung sinong babantayan nila at yung mga pinapasok may kakayahan, scorer, hindi basta-basta kayang iwanan, mahirap yun.
“Similar on San Miguel dati nung time namin hindi mo alam kung sinong puputok dapat ganon din ang Northport. Sana.”
As a true veteran though, the one-time PBA Season MVP will still continue to be there, guiding the team until it trends upwards.
With it comes Santos’ challenge to the bench players of Northport.
“Kapag player ka, kailangang ipakita mo na karapat-dapat ka dito sa team kasi marami sa aming mga players na hindi nagagamit, marami rin namang players diyan na maaayos,” the 16-year vet said.
“Ang inaano ko lang, sayang ang opportunity ng ibang players. Nandito na sila, dapat magpakita na rin sila.”
The Batang Pier opened the conference with two straight wins at the expense of Rain or Shine and Terrafirma.
However, the squad then dropped all but one of its remaining nine games.
And that was something Santos rued about – the team’s consistency.
“Maganda ‘yung start pero yun lang yung sinasabi ko talagang yung pagiging consistent malaking bagay eh,” said the nine-time PBA champion.
“Kitang kita naman na kulang na kulang talaga ‘yung Northport pa.”
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
