Though the Kia Picanto dropped their season opener Wednesday, it made the franchise realize something: those they have acquired through the controversial trade with San Miguel Beermen in the off-season can actually deliver.
“[Rashawn] McCarthy, [Ronald] Tubid, and Jay-R [Reyes] played excellent minutes for us,” Picanto coach Chris Gavina lauded of the former Beermen, moments after their 115-119 loss to the NLEX Road Warriors at the FilOil Flying V Center.
And of the three new guys, who were the pieces dealt by San Miguel in exchange for the 2017 first round draft pick that turned out to be Filipino-German sensation Christian Standhardinger, it was the 28-year-old McCarthy who shined the brightest.
The six-foot Filipino-American guard showed that he can be an all-around guard for the Picanto, tallying 14 markers by converting 46 percent of his shots on top of six rebounds and five assists in the 28 minutes and 30 seconds he played.
McCarthy’s outing was still a commendable one even if he and Kia wounded up with a loss; in a way, he was able to showcase how he could be of use to a team — something that he wasn’t able to do with the Beermen before.
He may have spent most of his time with San Miguel on the bench, but McCarthy is proud of the time he had there, as the Beermen’s troika of star guards in Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot, and Chris Ross had helped him grow more as a player.
And those things that he learned from the talented trio is something that he plans to carry over to his new team.
“I learned a lot from Chris, Alex, Marcio, all the guys are helping me, so I’m just trying to take some things I learned from those guys and bring it over here,” said McCarthy, who played a total of just 48.9 minutes last season.
“Just play hard, next play mentality and just continue to work hard.”
But despite his impressive debut, the sophomore guard iterated that he still has a lot of work to do in order to produce more for Kia as the season rolls.
“It feels good to get out on the court and play,” shared the New York-bred cager. “[But] I [still] feel like I need to get my conditioning [back] because I haven’t played that many minutes.
“It’s just a work in progress. I felt good though.”
“Once he comes into his own a little bit with regards to how we want things done especially on the defensive end, he could really attack and make decisions and I think he’ll come along as he gets used to our flow,” remarked Gavina of McCarthy.
Kia’s first game of their redemption tour is now in the books. Though the result wasn’t something that they had wanted, McCarthy assured that the fight they showed versus the Road Warriors will be the same against other teams.
“I expect us to come out and fight every night. I don’t expect us to just roll over and give other teams easy victories,” said McCarthy. “I think we showed a lot of heart, showed we wanted the victory, but we fell short but we fought hard.
“We’re gonna get a victory this conference, for sure.”
