2018 Phil. Cup: LEAST Valuable Player Ranking!

The Most Valuable Player award is the most prestigious plum in team sports. Great players have their eyes on that award. That is the award that will feed their ego, completely. 

So, how about introducing the other side of that award?

The Least Valuable Player award. 

I only considered the players that play more than 20 minutes a game. Because if not, I will surely end up with bench players who do not deserve to play more than 3 minutes.

So, who is the The Least Valuable Player?

He is the player that most deserving of playing time reduction and who is producing the most damage to his team, per minute of play. 

Here are the top 5 candidates, so far. 

#5 ALJON MARIANO

Who should be blame for unwillingness of Aljon to develop a three-point shot? In his first two seasons, he only attempted eight three-pointers. And this season, he only tried once. In the current basketball landscape, that is unacceptable already for forwards.

He is not even a scary option in any area in the court. He do not possess the athleticism and quickness to be a reliable playmaker and he cannot even make the right passes. 

His defense is his main appeal to coach Tim, but even that may not hold waters. In the best win of Ginebra, Mariano did not play and in that game, Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos combined for 11 of 33 shooting. 

#4 JARED DILLINGER

Efficiency was always been the water-loo of the so called Daredevil. Nonetheless, he compensates that with his ball handling, tenacity and defense. Unfortunately, he is looking more like a volume-shot-chucker than a reliable dangerous playmaker.

He is averaging 6 three-point shots per game, and only making 30.6% of it. He is so in-love of taking midrange and long-range shots, that in their six games this season, he only attempted two free-throws.

That kind of player is a roadblock to the success of the team. He better start attacking the basket more, or else Meralco will continue to suffer.

#3 KEVIN ALAS

I am quite shock that coach Yeng Guaio  still gave him more than 17 minutes a game, in their last three games. 

In those three games, Kevin was disastrous. He averaged 5.0 points, 25% FG and did not hit even one of his 9 attempts from beyond the arc. Lastly, they loss two of those three games.

Don't be fooled with his rebounding numbers, because majority of those were uncontested. It is good that he is passing more, but that is not the main reason why he is on the court.

His defense may not be good enough to surpass passable. So, it is really mind boggling for me, that coach Yeng was still trusting him with that amount of playing time.

#2 ANTHONY SEMERAD

Every professional basketball team has fallen in-love with three-and-D wings. Coach Nash also wants one and he believes that Semerad could be that guy.

He is not! 

In 28 tries from beyond the arc, he only connected on 8. Meaning, the three is not still on his DNA. And on defense? I can see the effort and tenacity, but the awareness is just average. 

Other than the occasional threes and the above average defense, Semerad is not bringing anything on the table. In a playoff series, the defense of their opponent can totally forget about him and lock the other four blue-shirts.

That will be a nightmare scenario if they will play him above 10 minutes.

#1 LA REVILLA

What is the reason why LA Revilla is playing 22.9 minutes a game? The guy is a disadvantage on defense and his three-point shooting is non-existent, failing to connect on six tries! 

Let us pounce on that. In the past, the guy's offense was anchored on his shooting and now, that is not even possible. In short, he is already a negative on offense. He can help on stretching the floor and if the defense knows, the paint will be much tighter.

Okay, he is grabbing boards and still registering assists. Those boards though were easy gets and those assists were structured on their offense. 

If LA wants to play longer on  the league, that long-range shot should return.