Best-player choice still up in the air

MANILA, Philippines - Barangay Ginebra’s Mark Caguioa is up against the two main men of Powerade and the two top guns of Alaska Milk in the fight for the Best Player plum in the 2012 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Curiously, no one from the two teams clashing in the finals made the official list of candidates for the coveted award.

If anything, it underscores the fact that both the Talk n Text Tropang Texters and the B-Meg Llamados possess a well-balanced, talent-laden lineup, and it reinforces expectation of a classic war in their best-of-seven showdown beginning tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

For the two teams, the situation could be even better now with all their players just focused on the battle, facing no outside distraction.

“I think what it speaks volumes of is the balance of the two teams in the finals,” said Talk n Text coach Chot Reyes.

“It’s a credit to the teamwork and sharing of both teams that neither has a standout candidate,” said B-Meg mentor Tim Cone.

Talk n Text’s best-placed player in the stats race through the semifinal round was Ranidel de Ocampo at ninth.

Meanwhile, B-Meg’s leading player was James Yap at 13th.

“We’ve long stopped paying attention to individual awards, so being in the race or not doesn’t matter to us,” said the Talk n Text bench chieftain.

David topped the stats race with an average of 34.5 stats points (SPs) a game, followed by Caguioa with 31.0, Marcio Lassiter (30.3), Cyrus Baguio (29.1) and LA Tenorio (29.0).

Placing just outside the Magic Five were Arwind Santos (28.9), Macmac Cardona (27.0) and Mike Cortez (26.9).

Cardona was running second behind David after the elimination round. The Meralco ace slid out of the top five after the quarters where, in one game, he was ejected for a technical infraction just at the start of the game.

David led all comers in the race with his impressive averages of 27.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists per outing.

The former Lyceum Pirate sustained his swashbuckling showing from the Philippine Cup where he bagged the coveted individual award.

His average output of 27.1 points was the best by any body in the league in over a decade.

And for his great improvement, he was among those named by coach Chot Reyes for the national pool to be trained for the 2013 FIBA Asia championship.

What’s going for Caguioa was his team’s third-place finish in the tourney. David and Lassiter failed to get Powerade past the elimination round while Baguio and Tenorio could only bring Alaska to the quarterfinals.

At TnT, De Ocampo is the best with an average of 26.1 SPs, followed by Jason Castro (25.6), Kelly Williams (23.9), Jimmy Alapag (23.2), Larry Fonacier (22.9) and Jarred Dillinger (22.6).

Talk n Text was the only team that saw more than three players make the Top 25 of the stats race.

B-Meg had three in Yap, Peter June Simon and Joe Devance and so did Powerade in David, Lassiter and Jvee Casio, Alaska in Baguio, Tenorio and Sonny Thoss, Meralco in Cardona, Chris Ross and Sol Mercado.

B-Meg’s Denzel Bowles could be the top choice for the Best Import with his league-best average of 45.24 SPs.

Running one-two-three are Barako Bull’s Gabe Freeman, Talk n Text’s Donnell Harvey and Ginebra’s Jackson Vroman – all import replacements.