San Miguel coach Leo Austria. INQUIRER PHOTO/TRISTAN TAMAYO
MANILA, Philippines—San Miguel is heading into a difficult direction for the new PBA Season starts with five-time MVP June Mar Fajardo missing a bulk of the calendar due to a fractured right shin.
Head coach Leo Austria he acknowledged that a team as strong as the Beermen could rely on themselves despite the absence of their 6-foot-10 giant.
“We don’t have June Mar and I think everybody in the team misses him but I told them that nobody could help us except ourselves,” said Austria in Filipino after losing to Alaska 81-79 in a tune-up game Friday at Upper Deck Sports Center.
“Everybody should step up and in the last three or four tune-up games we had we never had a good combination because I’m still trying to experiment with lineups.”
The Beermen added Bambam Gamalinda, Gelo Alolino, Wendell Comboy, Russel Escoto, and Daniel De Guzman during the offseason.
All five are expected to support San Miguel’s core of Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot, Chris Ross, Terrence Romeo, and Marcio Lassiter.
“We will try our best to have a threat in the post because normally that’s our setup with June Mar,” said Austria whose current starting center is Moala Tautuaa. “Our shooters can’t shoot if our big men can’t score in the shaded area.”
“He should be able to attract double teams and that’d be enough for our shooters to get an open shot in the perimeter.”
San Miguel shot the most three-pointers in the past season with 679 makes in 2,074 attempts for a respectable 32.7 percent, which is the fourth best in the league.
The Beermen were also the highest-scoring team with an average of 102.8 points a game.
Despite Fajardo’s absence, San Miguel is still considered as one of the most talented teams in the league with 2013 MVP Santos, Cabagnot, Ross, Lassiter, and Romeo sharing 13 Mythical First Team honors, six Finals MVPs, and 34 All-Star appearances.