COACH Nash Racela would be the first to admit that Blackwater remains far from being a contender in the PBA.
Racela is fine with that, focused as he is right now in instilling within the Bossing a culture founded on tenacity.
“We all know how strong teams are in the PBA and we’re in the league’s lower echelon. But our goal is really to try to be competitive,” said Racela in a recent Power & Play episode.
“The most important thing for us is we see the competitive spirit of the players,” added Racela.
“If we have less talented players but they all have that fighting attitude, then that really gives you confidence as a coach. You know that at a certain given time, you have five players who will really fight. That will really give you a good chance every game.”
That mind-set is part of what Racela said is his long-term plan for the team he joined only in November of 2019. The team underwent some overhauling after finishing 10th in the 2020 Philippine Cup.
“We’ve lost two of our leaders in the previous trades,” Racela pointed out, referring to Mac Belo and Don Trollano who moved over to Meralco and NLEX, respectively, in a three-team trade last month.
“Right now, the approach is we try to bring out the leadership in everyone. So we want the approach to be a collective leadership,” added Racela.
In those trades, also lost was Roi Sumang, leaving veteran KG Canaleta as the only legitimate scoring threat for the Bossing and giving Racela another cause for concern.
“We’ve lost three of our top scorers in those trades, Sumang, Belo and Trollano. The three of them gave us 36 points during the bubble,” explained Racela.
“The next top scorer after those three was KG. We think we’ll keep that going. We expect KG to contribute more on offense.”
Canaleta did deliver for Blackwater, averaging 11.7 points to go with 4.3 rebounds in 25.3 minutes per contest. But he is already 39 years old and Racela is now looking at his other players, especially the newcomers, to help out on both ends.
Aside from Simon Enciso and Baser Amer, acquired from TNT and Meralco, respectively, Blackwater also picked up free agent big man Kelly Nabong and Joshua Torralba, Andre Paras and Rey Mark Acuno from the rookie draft.
“Those guys could all score,” noted Racela. “It gives us a little bit more flexibility because our guards, in a way, could also score.”
Displaying toughness on defense is what Racela wants and more so from the rookies and he is sure to get that, based on what he saw in the limited practices and workouts they had before the lockdown.
“The toughness, that’s one reason we got those three guys,” offered Racela. “We saw that these are kids who can hustle and fight. They don’t just think about their offense, they are two-way players. They put emphasis on their defense and their hustle. I think that’s what they can give us.
“That kind of mentality, mixed with the veterans, that should give you positive output. So if we are able to develop that kind of culture in Blackwater, then, yeah, it will be good for us moving forward.”
