SAN Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra are still figuring in their heated battle in the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup finals, but both teams are already looking forward to next conference as well as they have already secured imports for the Commissioner’s Cup.
For obvious reasons, the Gin Kings are set to bring back Justin Brownlee, their popular reinforcement, who helped them win the Governors’ Cup last season and end their eight-year title drought.
Brownlee will be their import for the next two conferences much to the delight of the team’s faithfuls.
Picking to go with Brownlee again for the Commissioner’s Cup, a conference wherein teams are allowed to tap imports with a height limit of 6’10” is both a gamble and a practical choice as well.
With star center Greg Slaughter still out with his ACL injury, ceiling might be a concern for Ginebra as Brownlee only stands at 6’5” and the other teams all got taller and lengthier imports.
The timetable for Slaughter’s return is set somewhere in the latter part of the Commissioner’s Cup or the season-ending Governors’ Cup.
However, the team’s familiarity with Brownlee and the import’s high-caliber play are definitely bigger reasons for the team to go with him for the next two conferences.
On the other hand, the Beermen tapped a new face in 31-year-old Charles Rhodes, a veteran in the Korean Basketball League, where he played for Ulsan Mobis.
He also played college basketball in Mississippi State University in the United States.
Other teams that already have imports are Rain or Shine (Shawn Taggart), NLEX (Wayne Chism), Phoenix (Jarrid Famous), TNT KaTropa (Denzel Bowles), Meralco (Alex Stephenson), Star (Tony Mitchel) and Mahindra (James White).
