Webb not tinkering on Star roster despite trade rumors

MANILA, Philippines -- Despite trade rumors swirling around Star’s camp, rookie coach Jason Webb said he isn’t keen at pulling the trigger and make player movements at this point.

Instead, the 41-year-old freshman coach said he’s more concerned with preparing a team that is in transition after a successful title run with erstwhile coach Tim Cone in the last four seasons.

“We’re working on a lot of things, like the importance of how we play defense and how our offense will look next season,” Webb told Philstar.com on Monday after the team’s practice.

With a relatively young backcourt built around one-time All-Defensive team member Mark Barroca, high-leaping Fil-American Justin Melton and versatile Alex Mallari, Webb sees a retooled Hotshots that are aggressive on the defensive end.

In fact, Webb intends to sustain the Hotshots’ defensive energy under his watch next season.

“We’re not gonna be a full-court pressing team, but we will be aggressive on defense,” he said, whose team ranked first on defense last season after holding its opponents to just 87.53 points per contest.

The broadcast analyst-turned-coach will again turn to tested veterans led by two-time league MVP James Yap, Peter June Simon and Joe Devance on offense, though he expects everyone else to chip in as they make their championship drive in the post-Cone era.

He also reiterated that trading anybody in the team at this point might be counter-productive since the rest of the member-teams won't be willing to trade their best players out.

"I don't think anyone would want to release their marquee players," he said, while shooting down rumors that Joe Devance or even Allein Maliksi are on the trading block.

“Every player is valuable, from the first guy to the 14th guy, they are all valuable in the team,” stressed Webb, who played six PBA seasons for Sta. Lucia Realty and Tanduay from 1997 to 2003, before he joined the television panel of ABC5 (the former name of TV5) in 2004.

Webb expects first-round draftee Norbert Torres to come out strong in the Philippine Cup, especially since the former La Salle big man is out to prove something after dropping all the way to no. 8 in the recent Gatorade PBA Rookie Draft.

“Norbert is doing good in practice. And he wants to prove something, na di dapat siya bumagsak all the way to no. 8 in the draft,” explained Webb.

“But I like to see him work hard, so for sure, pagbalik ni (Marc) Pingris (from Gilas stint), he will learn a lot from him,” he added.