No one understands the process of being under a Tim Cone squad better than Joe Devance; he’s suited for all three franchises handled by the legendary mentor throughout a nine-year career, and he knows it takes time to develop Cone’s teams from scratch.
Barangay Ginebra once again saw their campaign end in the quarterfinals, after the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters scored a 102-89 win in Game Two Tuesday afternoon to sweep the series.
It was difficult for Ginebra players to see their conference end earlier than other contenders once again, but Devance considers that losing something will toughen the squad.
“It is hard to see it now, but it is part of our growth. We still have a long way to go. We made steps ahead throughout the conference. We worked, we grew, but we still have a long way to grow as a team,” Devance said.
“Individually, we have talent, but we just got to put it all together as a unit. Once we figured that out, we will be a great team.”
Devance, who finished with seven points and three rebounds in Game Two, admitted that Rain or Shine had exposed Ginebra’s weaknesses on defense, and although the team had the desire to win, cohesion was evidently missing.
“They shot the ball well, they ran us, pick and rolled us, and those are really the things we are kind of weak at. Those are the things we need to get better at defensively,” Devance said of the Elasto Painters.
“Even for us, we wanted to win. That probably was problem, we wanted to win so badly, we kind of wanted to do it on our own instead of working as a team. That’s where more of our growth needs to be.”
Devance also relayed that despite being disappointed with how Ginebra had approached Game Two, Cone is proud of the overall improvement of the team from the previous conference.
“He was disappointed with how we came out to play but he was still proud of our growth this conference. We still have a lot of learning to do,” he shared.
Heading to the next conferences, Devance thinks his team will only get better.
“Coach Tim is going to teach us in the next conference. I have no doubt we will get better next conference.”
