The Mahindra Floodbuster are now informally out of contention in the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup after absorbing their sixth straight loss to the Globalport Batang Pier on Sunday, but head coach Chris Gavina has a bigger problem to contend with.
Specifically, it’s the frequent no-shows of Alex Mallari in games — especially in times when needed the most.
The 6-foot-3 Filipino-American two-guard is always present and in uniform in their games, but the way he has been playing for the now-1-7 Floodbuster makes him a non-factor, as if he does not exist at all.
“Alex has this swings of brilliance, and as much as he is an asset to us, sometimes he is a detriment,” lamented Gavina, regarding his lately-inactive player, moments after Mahindra’s 105-86 loss to the Batang Pier.
Gavina has enough evidence to claim that Mallari has been inconsistent this conference. After scoring 24 and 17 in their losses against Star and TNT, Mallari, due to back spasms, was a DNP versus San Miguel last Wednesday.
And against the Batang Pier, Mallari only scored two points on nine attempts in 15 minutes. His numbers, after Sunday, have now dropped to 13.7 points — still a decent average, but not something expected of his caliber.
But it’s not just the drop in numbers that draws the ire of Gavina. For the youthful mentor, it is the 30-year-old swingman’s demeanor that he never liked, especially since the 30-year-old is expected to step up and be the team’s leader as a four-year veteran.
“His reactions towards his mistakes instead of moving on to the next play — he lingers and tries to complain. Body language changes… It’s just been contagious to the whole team when they see it,” explained Gavina.
“I tried to talk to him about it one on one, but he just hasn’t seemed to figure out that yet.”
But Gavina still continues to believe in Mallari, hoping that he will learn from this recent slump and regain his old form.
“Hopefully moving forward, he takes lessons learned from these two horrible losses we’ve had, and exercise some sort of growth mindset from himself, especially if he wants to be considered a superstar.
“Superstars have to carry themselves in a certain way, and I honestly feel like he hasn’t embraced that role, so we’ll see as we move forward,” Gavina admitted.
