NLEX coach Yeng Guiao. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Despite hinting at player changes in the offseason, NLEX coach Yeng Guiao didn’t make any drastic moves during the break and fielded almost the same core to open the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
But the outspoken mentor explained that the reason why the Road Warriors failed to close some deals was because he felt his players were being undervalued in the trade market.
“I did not hide the fact that we tried to trade in the offseason, but we did not close any of the deals because they were trading ballboys for our players,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s hard to let go of a player if they’re trading him for a ballboy. If not a ballboy, they’re giving us an eighth round draft pick. When I researched, there’s no such thing as an eighth round.”
READ: Yap’s 26-point burst lifts Rain or Shine past NLEX
Turning serious, Guiao said that as much as he wanted to make moves to retool his roster for the second conference, the deals just won’t cut it. He opted to keep the team intact and instead just challenged them to show their worth.
“It’s hard to trade if nobody wants your players. But we’ll keep the team in tact, prove the doubters wrong so that if we think of trading again in the future, there will be real value to our players. Maybe next time, they’ll be worth more than just ballboys,” he said.
“Maybe, this is a blessing in disguise that we weren’t able to trade players because now, we have a chance to prove ourselves again as a team. That’s what we’ll do: We will perform better, try harder, and work harder.”
And that’s also a reason why he kept his team in the dugout for close to an hour following NLEX’s 113-105 loss to Rain or Shine as he hopes to correct his side’s miscues early in the conference.
READ: Guiao: I’m not going to let up on the pressure
“We need to get to work early. We don’t want to fall into a deep hole, so as much as possible, if we can nip it in the bud, we’ll nip it in the bud. We had a chance to win the game or we were in the game the last two minutes, but there were some lapses defensively, so I think we need to improve on closing out games and making stops when they’re needed most,” he said.
Guiao has also noticed significant improvements on his side. Contrary to his team’s losses in the Philippine Cup, where the Road Warriors absorbed a number of routs, at least this time, they were able to hang on until the end.
Despite the loss, the veteran coach thinks that these experiences could only be beneficial for the team’s maturity in the long run.
“To me, you have to experience these kinds of situations in order to develop and learn. We have not had experiences of this kind in the last conference. We had a lot of blowout losses so for me, the more we play close games, the wiser we will become. That’s the positive aspect of this. As long as we can hang on until the end and do it most of the time, you will learn how to win the close games,” he said.
NLEX returns to action on Sunday against Meralco.