By: Isaiah Flores
The popularity of positionless basketball has been growing in recent years. The trend started from having a small-ball big who can do a little bit of everything, to now having a bunch of wing players squeezed into a single lineup.
Usually, this style is paired with a side dish of pace and space to maximize the whole serving. But Barangay Ginebra is doing it the old-fashioned way – and to say that it’s interesting is an understatement.
Ginebra derives a lot of the spice from Jeremiah Gray and Jamie Malonzo, two wing players who bring something different to the table with their respective roles.
Malonzo is more of a two-way athletic wing who offers a little bit of everything. In the first half of the conference, Malonzo averaged 13.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.0 assists, as well as 2.4 stocks per game (steals and blocks) in their first seven games.
Jamie Malonzo Defense
Gray, on the other hand, is a 6-foot-4 rookie who’s touted as someone who can score from three levels. The Fil-American talent suffered an injury back in December 2021 and has been slowly easing himself into the game, but in limited time, he has already shown flashes of what he can contribute to Ginebra’s well-oiled machine.
Paired with Justin Brownlee, Ginebra now can field three guys over 6’4 and over players who can make plays with the ball from three levels.
But with such versatile pieces, how do they put them all together?
Back to basics
Ginebra went back to their basics and ran some triangle offense in their first several games, though they really weren’t going too deep in their bag in terms of running coach Tim Cone’s trademark system.
The three things that stood out, though, are their transition attacks, off-ball cutting, and their two man game.
Ginebra has shown that they’re still one of the best-cutting teams in the league. Through their first seven games, the Gin Kings shot a monstrous 65.5 percent from field goals generated by cuts. That figure is hardly surprising given how they have a handful of athletic players in Malonzo, Gray, and Brownlee – as well as Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar – capable of playing with or without the ball:
Off-ball movement & cuts
Surprisingly, they haven’t gone to the pass-to-the-post option as much as we would expect. They don’t particularly run the triangle to get post touches, as it appears the emphasis during this conference has been on running their two-man game actions.
Two-man game
Traditionally, the pass-to-the-top option in the triangle offense triggers the pinch post, where the opposite big flashes to the free throw line extended to kickstart the two-man game.
But if we look at Ginebra’s recent games, the man in the pinch post isn’t really a big man posting – they’re forwards spaced out in the wing near the three point line. That space allows Ginebra to be more creative with their two-man game instead of going to their usual give-and-go pitch pass.
Ginebra’s Wide Pinch Post
What are they cooking?
Despite the creativity, It’s no secret that Ginebra still has a lot to improve on offensively to be a clear-cut title contender in this conference. But this might just be the experimentation period – the start of something better. This new breed of Ginebra roster will need time to fully tap into its potential. But whatever this conference may bring to the Barangay, what they’re cooking right now has the potential to be something great.
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
