Gin Kings embrace triangle anew with Slaughter in fold

MANILA, Philippines – Barangay Ginebra has reverted to playing the triangle offense with 7-foot-1 center Greg Slaughter back.

In readopting coach Tim Cone’s pet play, the Gin Kings mangled the GlobalPort Batang Pier, 124-108, in a big turnaround from their shattering 78-93 loss to the Meralco Bolts in their first game in the PBA Governors Cup on July 23.

“Frankly, I wasn’t sure I’d be here,” said Cone to start the post-game interview after beating GlobalPort Sunday at the Big Dome.

“After the first loss, I wasn’t thinking we could figure it out that quickly, but we had a week to practice after that game (against Meralco) and we made a lot of adjustments. We revisited the triangle a little more, and it worked,” Cone pointed out.

With their tall frontline that also features Japeth Aguilar, Joe Devance and Justin Brownlee, the Kings are likely to compete this conference using the lethal weapon that spelled much success for Cone in his previous PBA teams.

“Triangle is such a great post offense,” said Cone, the league’s winningest coach with grand slam championships with both Alaska Milk and the Star Hotshots.

“That’s one of the reasons why everybody’s saying that’s our cave because our offense is all about spread, being guard-oriented, and shooting treys. Our big men are basically being rim protectors and screening,” Cone explained. “But our bigs are not like that. Our bigs need the ball, they need to be in a position down low and have the opportunity to score. And that’s what the triangle is good at. It rewards the post guys.”

Cone, however, said they still need to adjust as Brownlee and a number of their local guys have yet to run the offense.

He expects it to work with the lineup that he’s got now at Ginebra.

“What I like about the triangle is that allows us to play with different kinds of lineups. We have a big lineup, we have a small lineup, and it allows us to do different things defensively as well,” he said.

Ginebra chief playmaker LA Tenorio is confident it will work for them.

“We have to maximize our post talents,” said Tenorio, Cone’s premier guard at Alaska in the post-Johnny Abarrientos era.

Slaughter, Aguilar, Brownlee, Devance, Tenorio and Scottie Thompson all had big games playing the triangle against GlobalPort.

Tenorio fired away 5-of-7 three-pointers and led the Kings with 29 points, Brownlee came up with 21 points and 12 rebounds, Slaughter piled up 19 points and eight rebounds while Aguilar contributed 10 boards and nine markers.