One of the most exciting thing in being a professional basketball fan is to monitor prospects. When they enter the league, we are all excited of what they will bring to the court.
Will they become the 2nd coming of a star? Can they defy the odds and be a steal in the draft? What will they bring that your favorite team, currently don't have?
Every team has a top prospect that they have the highest expectations. So, how did they fair in the Philippine Cup? Time to grade them:
Prospect - Maybe we have different definitions of a prospect. For me, they are the young players that are not yet fully develop or were not given enough opportunity to show us how concrete their ceiling is.
Meralco Bolts: Mike Tolomia
Tolomia was one of the assassins in the recent UAAP generation. He was supposed to be a do-it-all scoring threat. Unfortunately, he is playing on a team that have a very young depth in its guard rotation.
In the Philippine Cup, he got inconsistent minutes and ended up with 6.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 32.8% FG and 34.3% 3FG per game. The efficiency is a huge concern, but we should not magnify it that much, because the sample is small.
In his best game against San Miguel, he erupted for 21 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal. The best numbers that he produced was his 5/9 three-point shooting and his single turnover. When the guy is clicking, he is next to unstoppable.
When Mike get into his groove, I think he is as good as the Terrence Romeo and Alex Cabagnot of the PBA, in terms of scoring and playmaking. Unfortunately, he is not yet consistent to be in that level.
Grade: B
Phoenix Fuel Masters: Jason Perkins
I am not that high with Perkins when he entered the 2017 draft. After his first conference, I am close to changing my mind. Perkins was as skilled as advertise. He is averaging 10.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 46% FG.
Not all my expectations were met. I did not see much passing ability and vision, and his outside shooting only extends to the midrange.
Defensively, he was able to stand against faster wings and guards and in post-ups, he did well.
After a conference, I still cannot see his potential higher than a starting caliber player. But, his base is definitely 10 years of being a role-player.
Grade: B
Magnolia Hotshots: Jio Jalalon
It is easy to fall in-love with the game of Jio. When you watch him play, the energy is always very high. You will always see him grinding and disrupting passing lanes on the defensive end and running fast on the offensive end.
But, what did he proved in this Philippine Cup? He averages 7.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.7 steals and 31.4% FG.
The efficiency is disgusting. It will be hard to design plays for him if he can only make that portion of his shots. The other part of his game is respectable. But, if he cannot push that FG% up, he will only end up as a high-end back-up or a serviceable starter.
He doesn't have the size of a Chris Ross to make his impact on rebounding and defense good enough to compensate for his inefficiency. Even his playmaking is lagging behind.
But, it is still early to give up on him. Efficiency is not that hard to improve. The first thing that he needs to do is to choose better shots to take. After that, he should develop his near-the-rim shots. And then learn how to make accurate kick-out passes.
If he can do that after a year, he could get respectable efficiency and produce better numbers.
Grade: D
Comments
Post a Comment