BARANGAY Ginebra still has a lot of catching up to do if it is to defend its PBA Philippine Cup title.
Despite scrimmaging now for more than a month, the Kings are still not 100 percent ready yet for the season and need added time to really get back in the form that paved the way for them to emerge as champions in the Clark bubble last year.
As per the estimate of veteran guard LA Tenorio, the team is just around 60 or 70 percent in game shape as the long layoff obviously affected the physical conditioning of the Kings.
"No basketball for almost six months, medyo mahirap kunin yun for almost a month (of training). So little by little, step by step, we're getting there especially with our new guys and of course, Christian Standhardinger," said the 36-year-old playmaker, who was adjudged the Finals MVP when Ginebra beat TnT Tropang Giga to win the season's lone conference for 2020.
"A lot of work to do. Marami pa talaga."
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It didn't help any the 6-foot-8 Standhardinger has not been practicing with the Kings of late in Lipa, Batangas due to an old injury.
"For now he's still injured. He's still recovering from a past injury. We want to make sure that before the opening he will be 100 percent, that's why we're not forcing him to practice right away," Tenorio said of the Fil-German center who the Kings acquired from NorthPort in a trade for Greg Slaughter.
Ginebra will really need all the help it can get from Standhardinger since the Kings understandably, will be the target of the rest of the field as the defending all-Filipino champions, according to Tenorio.
"We know it's gonna be really hard this coming conference kasi lahat ng teams nagpalakas talaga. And I think this is the hardest conference na lalaruin namin knowing na a lot of teams ang target kami, kasi kami ang defending champions," he said.
"So the thing that we did last bubble is I think, not good enough for this conference to defend the title. So we really have to double time our work." (RG)
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