HAVING versatile players like Joe Devance and Japeth Aguilar give Barangay Ginebra the luxury of fielding in a big lineup.
A 6-foot-7 multi-skilled player, Devance is the only player in the PBA who can play all five positions.
He can play the point guard spot because of his dribbling ability then can slide to play center on defense because of his wide frame.
“I think Joe (Devance) gave us a lot of versatility, which allows us to play big as he can swing back to the guard position that doesn’t force Justin (Brownlee) to change position so he can stay where he is. When it comes to ball handling, being a power guy, being a defender, being a rebounder, Joe can play any position,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.
But more than his versatility, Mr. Cone credited Mr. Devance for his excellent job on defense as he had limited imports playing on the 6-foot-5 ceiling below their average.
“I think he’s defending extremely well against the imports. He’s done fantastic job because he’s really smart. He’s not a great defender, but he’s a super smart defender. He knows how to defend a guy when he has people behind him. He knows what he can do. He knows it’s not about him, it’s about everybody. He’ll play that role to a team and that makes him such a great defender,” said Mr. Cone.
Mr. Aguilar’s versatility, particularly on defense, also gave the Gin Kings more liberty to do a lot of things.
“The versatility of Japeth defensively allows us to go bigger. He can go out and guard some wings, guard bigs and so that allows us to play that big lineup,” added Mr. Cone.
With Mr. Devance capable of playing both guard spots and Mr. Aguilar playing the forward position, Justin Brownlee and center Greg Slaughter can keep their spots, which will give the Gin Kings four bigs to go along anyone from LA Tenorio and Scottie Thompson.
In their game against the Phoenix Fuel Masters, the Gin Kings were able to throw that big lineup again.
“We overwhelmed them with our size, I think. We did a good job protecting the rim against Brandon Brown. He was trying to get to the rim. He’s vicious going to the rim. He goes to the rim really hard. But he was meeting Japeth (Aguilar), Greg (Slaughter) every time. We expect them to play a lot more together and get that big lineup out there more often. We like it. We dominated the boards, we dominated our offensive boards with our size. We dominated the paint,” said Mr. Cone.
Mr. Cone said fielding in a big lineup isn’t something new in his system.
“If you look at San Miguel, they have great size with June Mar (Fajardo). We tried to take advantage with our size. Honestly, the big lineup, we used to do that as well to Purefoods — with Ping (Marc Pingris) and Joe. Now we can throw a bigger lineup because we have bigger guys. So we have a system for it. We have a system for defense, we have a system of offense for it. We really look forward to playing those big lineups. It’s a strength that we have that nobody else had, except maybe for San Miguel with June Mar,” added Mr. Cone. — Rey Joble
