Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s big lineup proved to be effective for the Juna Mar Fajardo-anchored San Miguel Beermed whom the Gin Kings dispatched in the Oppo PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals.
Now in the semifinals, Gin Kings coach Tim Cone sees a tougher battle for his squad in the semifinal round against either Rain or Shine and TNT–two teams which rely on speed rather than size.
“The drawback is we’re so big and we’re having difficulty against smaller, quicker teams,” Cone told InterAksyon.
“We didn’t have much difficulty matching up with San Miguel because they’re big also with June Mar. But it’s tougher for us for Talk N Text or Rain or Shine because they’re quick and they have shooting bigs. We’re still exploring how to best handle that.”
The Gin Kings boast twin towers 7’0″ Greg Slaughter and 6’9″ Japeth Aguilar; versatile 6’7″ forward Joe Devance and 6’5″ import Justin Brownlee. This conference, Cone usually played them all at the same time, with one guard completing the five.
But using a big line up against smaller and quicker teams could also turn out disastrous for them if mismanaged, according to Cone.
“We thought we had an idea of doing something against Talk ‘N Text (in the eliminations) and it blew up in our faces. It was like back to the drawing board for us. We figured we still have time what’s going to work for us until we get better, better and better. It takes a little more time,” he said.
The Gin Kings will start their semifinals series on Sunday.
