First Pinoy in NBA

Since the NBA started as the Basketball Association of America in 1946, no full-blooded Filipino has ever played in the league. Raymond Townsend and Jordan Clarkson remain the only players with Filipino roots to make it to the majors. Two other US-born Fil-Ams Remy Martin and Jalen Green will soon join the NBA ranks.

Indiana Pacers assistant coach Bill Bayno said it’s just a matter of time before a full-blooded Filipino invades the NBA. Bayno was a guest on a coaching web seminar organized by Blackwater sports director Ariel Vanguardia on Zoom last Friday and shared his thoughts on Kai Sotto. Vanguardia was in Bayno’s staff when the former UNLV and Loyola Marymount coach called the shots for TNT in two PBA conferences in 2002.

“Mark (Dickel) called me to keep an eye on Kai,” said Bayno. “Kai’s still young, he needs to get tougher, to be more aggressive but he has the NBA skill set. He shoots and passes well for a seven-footer. He may be the first Filipino to crash the NBA.” Bayno said Japeth Aguilar could’ve been the first. “He’s long and he has the NBA body,” noted Bayno. “Kai’s similar to Japeth, a big guy who can play the perimeter. I’d love to help out Kai if he needs advice. But because of what I do with the Pacers and NBA restrictions, I’m not able to work with him.”

From the PBA, Bayno found his way to the NBA. He was an assistant coach with Portland, Minnesota and Toronto before joining Indiana in 2016. Bayno started his NBA career backing up coach Nate McMillan at Portland and is now reunited with McMillan at Indiana.

Bayno said scouting in the PBA and NBA is identical but practice in the PBA is harder than in the NBA. “Training camp is similar but during the season, practice in the NBA is a lot more mental with guys sometimes going 3/4 speed against staff, avoiding injuries to players,” he said. “Load management is big in the NBA. We have devices that measure output if a body surpasses a certain level, then we impose rest days. We’ve also found how important sleep is. We encourage players to get even 10 to 11 hours of straight sleep so when the game begins, we’ve got fresh minds, fresh legs and good energy. With more sleep, the facts show that we win at least 70 percent of our games than with less sleep where we win only 52 percent.”

Bayno said keeping it simple is key in discussing game plans with players based on scouting reports. “Focus on three or four things,” he said. “We have rules with our team, like how to contain middle pick-and-rolls, when to hard hedge or blitz, how to defend side pick-and-rolls, ISOs (isolation). No. 1 is transition defense. I’m a believer of switching but we usually save it for the second half and don’t do it right away. Scouting will tell us if our opponent is a good offensive rebounding team, its weaknesses, its strengths. Zone has become popular in the NBA because sometimes, other teams don’t know how to attack it. Remember we have a 2.9 second defensive rule in the paint so it’s different from FIBA. I think zone should be part of a coaching package like we could use it in ATO (after time out) plays. I recall once with Minnesota, we were down 25 in the third quarter then we zoned and almost won. (Toronto coach) Nick (Nurse) used a box-and-1 for the first time in the last Finals against Golden State with (Fred) Van Vleet sticking to Steph (Curry), denying, pressing.”

The ability to communicate is critical for a coach to succeed. “Millennials want an explanation,” he said. “A coach needs to build trust and get along with people.” Through the years in the NBA, Bayno has worked with outstanding players like LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach Randolph, Brandon Roy, Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, DeMar DeRozan, Victor Oladipo, Malcolm Brogdon, the Holiday brothers, Kyle Lowry, T. J. Warren, Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis. “Hard to pick the best five,” he said.   

Bayno said one thing he learned in Manila was how to text. “I have big thumbs so it wasn’t easy texting,” he said. Bayno said texting was the thing in the Philippines long before it got popular in the US and now, everyone in the world is in the bandwagon.