ANTIPOLO — All 16 players of NLEX saw action in their dismantling of Macau for a winning PBA Season 50 Governors’ Cup debut on Friday night, as new head coach Jimmy Alapag made total use of the artillery at his disposal.
All his men saw action for at least three minutes in their 114-75 victory, with five finishing in double figures. Import DeQuan Jones and Kevin Alas led the team — a stark contrast to the two-man production that the guest team received in the loss.
Asked if this could be a sign of things to come now that he’s running the show for the MVP Group-owned franchise, the former league MVP remained measured in his response.
“I think so. In an ideal situation, I think that’d be great. But I think every game’s different,” offered Alapag after the match at the Ynares Center here.
“I think as we move forward in the conference, the rotations may differ depending on the opponent. But again, I think we have the ability to play a number of our guys off our bench.”
Alapag has also felt in awe of the kind of talent his new team possesses, making him eager to test everyone out moving forward into the conference, as he wants to explore the depth of his roster.
(C) PBA Images
Adding to the encouragement was also the way his charges shared the ball against the Giant Pandas, which led to 30 assists — a foundation which he said they can build on as a unit.
“I do think that we have the depth to stretch our bench a little bit, to give some of the other guys an opportunity,” he said, clearly putting his experience as a player development coach for the Sacramento Kings into good use.
“It will be up to them to take advantage of those minutes. But I think the competitive spirit of this group is very encouraging at this early stage.”
For now, his attention is on finding the right mix of players to lean on. But as far as the system goes, Alapag is hardly making adjustments.
“My main objective was to make very subtle adjustments. Kasi, if you look back to the last conference, this team was the number one team in the eliminations,” he explained.
“I didn’t feel like I needed to make any major changes.”
It will be interesting times ahead for Alapag and NLEX, and the Gilas Pilipinas icon is looking forward to that, now that his first game as a head coach — in the league he helped build — is now in the books.
“Saya, just to be home,” he said. “Before I left in 2020, our family had been here for 19 years. And the last six years, seen a lot, learned a lot in my time in the NBA.”
“To take everything that I’ve learned from my experience here, kasama sa Gilas, and now my experience back in the States, to pour that into this group, and this generation of Philippine basketball, that’s the exciting part.”
