Ginebra twin towers fun to watch, Caguioa to play new role says Cone

MANILA, Philippines -- Coach Tim Cone said seven weeks to teach the triangle offense before the opening of the PBA’s 41st season is enough time to build a good foundation for Barangay Ginebra.

Conducting his first team practice since being announced as the Gin Kings’ new coach three weeks ago, Cone described his experience working with the players as “fun”.

“It was fun to watch the two big guys because I never had two big guys like that,” Cone told Philstar.com, referring to the Ginebra “Twin Towers” Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar.

The American coach explained that the Gin Kings have all the tools necessary to dominate the league for a long time because of the mixture of veterans and young players.

But translating all that to championships would mean committing to work together, starting in practice.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of talent on this team, and a lot of potential leadership on this team,” noted the 57-year-old Cone.

“They’ve got the tools to win. But it doesn’t come automatically. You have to figure out a way to use it. So there’s a lot of work,” he added.

“Championships don’t happen unless we have championship practices so everyday, individually we have lot of work to do.”

Unlike his initial coaching stint with Star (then known as B-Meg), the PBA’s all-time winning coach said he only had 10 days to cram everything up before playing their first game during the 2012 season.

“The big difference there (Star Hotshots) was we only had 10 days of practice before our first game so we had to really rush it all together,” recalled Cone.

“But here, we have seven weeks before we play our first game. And so we have time to build our foundation, take our time and build it right,” he said.

“That gives us the opportunity to be a lot better.”

He added that Ginebra players have developed certain habits through the years and these are something that must be addressed as they go deep in the ‘triangle’.

“Greg has a certain habit.  Japeth has a certain habits. Then we have to introduce a new position for Mark (Caguioa).  Everybody needs to be patient,” said Cone on his patented system that was invented by Tex Winter.

“You have to be patient with your teammate and more so, you have to be patient yourself, because you got to have a lot of leaning also,” he added.