THE INAUGURAL BALLER AWARDS: THE BEST SHOOTING GUARD OF 2013
In lieu of a PBA year-ender, I felt it would be better to go position-by-position and look at the best PBAers of 2013. These are the guys who did really well in the pro circuit. Perhaps they led their teams to conference titles. Perhaps they led the league in a certain statistical category. Perhaps they were part of Gilas Pilipinas and helped the team make history. Perhaps they did all of those things.
In this post, we will look at the top PBA shooting guards of the year and award the Baller Award to the Best PBA Shooting Guard of 2013.
The Shooting Guard Nominees:
Larry Fonacier – Talk N Text Tropang Texters and Gilas Pilipinas
2013 was a banner PBA season for Larry Fonacier, who averaged career-highs in rebounds, assists, and minutes played. He was big in helping TNT cop the 2013 Philippine Cup and then played a vital back-up role for Gilas Pilipinas in the 2013 FIBA Asia tourney. I remember him hitting a ton of shots against the Taiwanese in that tournament only to see them rally in the fourth for a stirring comeback win. It was painful to see Larry’s great shooting night spoiled, but at least the rest of Asia saw just how good he could be.
Jeff Chan – Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and Gilas Pilipinas
Jeff Chan’s star continued to shine in 2013, even if his scoring dipped a little bit. His points-per-game dropped from 14.3 in 2012 to 11.9 in 2013, but he made up for this with an increase in rebounds and assists. More importantly, however, he hit a myriad of triples in Gilas Pilipinas’s FIBA Asia campaign. He connected on more than 56% of his field goals, including nearly 48% of his treys. What has he to show for? Well, he helped ROS barge into the 2013 Philippine Cup Finals and Gilas Pilipinas book a ticket to the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
Mark Caguioa – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings
Caguioa continued to be one of the most charismatic and dangerous players in the PBA. His combination of flair and skill was a big reason Ginebra remained a title contender in each of the three conferences, though they could only go as far as the Commissioner’s Cup Finals, where they lost to Alaska in three games. He upped his scoring and assists numbers in 2013, and is currently one of the veteran leaders on a new-look Ginebra squad that is on top of the 2014 Philippine Cup leaderboard.
James Yap – San Mig Super Coffee Mixers
Yap went through a lot in 2013, both on and off the court (thank you, Kris Aquino and that new Italian gal!). Despite his showbiz-skewed issues, however, Yap remained one of the most entertaining ballers in the PBA. The “Man with a Million Moves” may not have been the picture of efficiency, but he still had the penchant for hitting big shots and making big plays. In particular, he came up big as the Mixers upset the Boosters in the seven-game Govs’ Cup Finals that finished just about two months ago.
Gary David – Meralco Bolts (currently, but he played for GlobalPort Batang Pier last season) and Gilas Pilipinas
El Granada couldn’t really improve on the numbers he had in a career-defining 2012 PBA season, but that doesn’t mean his performance in 2013 was anything to scoff at. On the contrary, David remained one of the deadliest shooters around. I mean, just ask the Kazakhs, who were on the receiving end of six three-point bombs from the former Powerade Tiger and GlobalPort Batang Pier. He hit nearly two treys a game last season, and he’s still hitting at that rate for his new team, the Meralco Bolts, in the current Philippine Cup. Rust? Yeah, David seems immune to that.
And the BALLER goes to…
JEFF CHAN
This is a really tough position/category to decide, practically since all the aforementioned guys have been super awesome. And there are others who didn’t even make the cut, like the SG twins of Petron: Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz, or the Aces’ Cyrus Baguio. Still, I’ll give the slightest of edges to Chan, who enjoyed a Finals appearance with the Painters and was the most consistent gunner for Gilas Pilipinas in the 2013 FIBA Asia. He’s not exactly the second coming of Allan Caidic, but he’s probably as close as anyone will ever get.
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
