All throughout the PBA Bubble Season, Barangay Ginebra seem like it was a fine-tuned engine.
Fans were even saying, “No Greg Slaughter, no problem!”
And the Gin Kings proved that it can survive an All-Filipino conference without the 7-foot Cebuano after winning the Philippine Cup, Wednesday evening — their first in the crown jewel meet since 2007.
But for Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, he wants Slaughter back.
“We’re hoping to get Greg back. I think that would be huge for us.”
For 72 days, it was 6-foot-9 Japeth Aguilar and 6-foot-7 Prince Caperal who have been taking turns in anchoring Ginebra’s defense.
Aguilar averaged MVP-numbers of 14.27 points, 6.82 rebounds, and 1.45 blocks per game while Caperal normed 9.64 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest.
Throughout the season, however, Ginebra, who only lost six games inside the bubble, had a hard time with teams that have bigs.
Ian Sangalang of Magnolia; Reynel Hugnatan and Raymond Almazan of Meralco; and Mo Tautuaa of San Miguel had good games against Ginebra because of the lack of the Kings’ lack of a true center.
“I would love to have Greg back on the team, and that would help Japeth out in terms of giving him a break and we could be a little bit more creative in the way we play. We get Greg back and move forward to the All-Filipino,” he continued.
Beyond that, Cone wants to have an intact team heading into Season 46.
“I’d like the team to come back intact and find a way to get Greg back on the lineup and go from there,” said Cone, who is gunning for a 24th championship.
“I think that we can still compete for championships if we stay intact and get Greg back in the lineup.”
