Head coach Jojo Lastimosa admitted yesterday that he was taken aback by the on-and-off campaign so far of TNT Tropang Giga in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup.
“I didn’t expect that we would struggle early. I thought we still have enough to compete on a nightly basis, but having guys come in and out of injury didn’t allow us to have continuity,” said Lastimosa in a Viber message.
The absence of key players Mike Williams and Roger Pogoy as well as two frontliners in Poy Erram and Justin Chua, have made it extremely difficult for the team to win consistently even if top import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is doing what is expected from him.
Hollis-Jefferson has been producing 33.25 points per game, the best among the reinforcements playing in the tournament.
The former National Basketball Association star also averaged 10.5 rebounds and close to six assists but even his impressive numbers are not enough to good enough to propel TNT to the top.
The Tropang Giga currently tote a 2-3 win-loss card.
Pogoy was sidelined by myocarditis, an inflammation of heart muscle, while Erram and Chua are still recovering from knee injuries.
The biggest missing piece is definitely Williams, who along with Lastimosa and Hollis-Jefferson were key figures of TNT’s title run that dethroned Barangay Ginebra as two-time Governors Cup champion.
Williams has been taken out of the roster by the Tropang Giga and decided to terminate the player’s contract for not fulfilling his obligations.
“Injuries are something you can’t control, but the level of effort from everyone has to be better to compensate for missing bodies,” Lastimosa added.
“Having said that, there has to be accountability to the whole team to work harder together — to contribute not necessarily on points but on the hustle part/ intangibles,” he added.
