Coach Yeng Guiao and Jericho Cruz have found their way back into each other’s company.
The fiery bench strategist and the versatile guard – who shared PBA success together back when they were still under the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters umbrella – have reunited, this time with the NLEX Road Warriors.
NLEX landed Cruz from sister team TNT KaTropa through a three-team trade that also involved the NorthPort Batang Pier just this Monday. His arrival to the Road Warriors camp is surely a shot in the arm for them.
“Jericho, I think, added a new dimension to our team. He’s aggressive, he knows my system, he knows what I like, he can play both ends. He can score, he can defend,” said Guiao of the former Most Improved Player and Mr. Quality Minutes.
Guiao clearly knows his student well. He showed as much on Friday, when NLEX faced the Magnolia Hotshots.
In his Road Warriors debut – which was also his first game back after a few months – Cruz played for 27 minutes and 47 seconds. He finished with eight assists, six points, three rebounds, and a steal.
And Guiao already looks forward to when he can play Cruz together with Kiefer Ravena and Kevin Alas.
“Medyo nangapa lang siya doon sa shooting o offense niya ngayon, which is understandable. But I let him stay on the floor so we can accelerate his acclimatization with the team – mas madali siyang mag-blend,” Guiao said.
“I think he would be a good addition, especially if we already have Kiefer and Kevin. We’re excited.”
While Cruz had his debut, Friday night also marked Guiao’s return after a break with his family – a break from a stressful time last few months, in which he coached Gilas Pilipinas and ran in the midterm elections.
Guiao – who was ejected with 3:06 left to play for incurring his second technical foul of the night – admitted that it was disappointing to lose. Still, he decided to simply look at the positives, saying that they played better versus Magnolia.
“Still a disappointing loss, but I feel na we played a lot better today than our previous last three games when I was absent. I saw the games when I was gone; I don’t think we played defense as good as we did today,” he said.
“Kung siguro lang ang diperensya lang is, well again, we did not get breaks from the officiating. We moved the ball well. I think we had 27 assists, which was to me, yun ang regular game namin,” added the decorated mentor.
“We had games where we had more turnovers than assists, pero at least today, we had 27 assists and 16 turnovers, so medyo positive kami doon sa ratio. That’s one good thing. The other good thing is I saw effort on defense.”
