Just last week, I wrote about rumors connecting Tim Cone to a potential transfer to Barangay Ginebra. Well, it is now official. The Tim Cone magic makes its way to the barangay.
The news did not auger well for Purefoods fans. The man who gave them a Grandslam is heading over to its sister team. So shocked were the Purefoods diehards that they even trooped to Twitter and pleaded to Ramon S. Ang to stop the transfer. But the SMC executive would have none of that.
For us, Ginebra fans, this is indeed a huge development. The winningest coach in the league is now the head coach of the most popular team in the PBA. It gives us a ray of hope that finally we have a coach who can bring back our team to the Promised Land. The task of ending Ginebra's 8 year title drought now falls into the hands of Tim Cone.
But just like the other coaches before him, there is pressure on Tim Cone to deliver on the task at hand. Ginebra has been known to sack its coaches when they do not deliver results. You can tell that to Frankie Lim, who just one conference ago was chosen to end the drought. Unfortunately, he did not last long as well.
Before we go on and make pronouncements that Ginebra is going to be champions next season, let us remember that it will not happen overnight. Ramon Ang and Tim Cone himself was quick to temper fans' expectations. Transforming a team that has not won a championship in the last 8 years into a title contender will take some time.
First of all, Tim Cone needs to build on the foundation of that contender team. Ginebra possesses perhaps the most talent laden players in the league led by its Twin Tower combination of Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar. Coach Tim will have to work on and bring out the potential of these players in order to achieve his goal. That alone is not an easy task.
It is expected that Coach Tim will reintroduce the players to the vaunted triangle offense. The very same system that won for Alaska and Purefoods Grandslam titles. The system is nothing new for the Kings having used it during the time of Jeffrey Cariaso. Again this is where a question may arise. Why bring back a system that did not previously work?
There is a huge difference between the triangle that Coach Jeff instilled and the system that Coach Tim will bring. Now, Ginebra will be learning from the master himself. Second, Coach Tim will have the whole off season to let the players master the system. Something that Coach Jeff did not have as he only had the conference break to teach the system to Ginebra players.
Transforming the team into a champion team will not come right away. With Purefoods, it took Coach Tim two conferences to win his first title with the team. What more with a struggling Ginebra team? But once the team gets used to the triangle, they will be tough to beat.
And so we await next season with a lot of excitement and anticipation. Finally, we have a coach who has the skills and ability to finally put an end to the title drought of our beloved Ginebra. Coach Tim will do everything to achieve that goal. As for us fans, we need to be patient because with Coach Tim as our coach, we could finally be seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
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