MILAN – CJ Perez distinguished himself as the first rookie in memory to clinch the scoring honors, June Mar Fajardo extended his reign as the king of the boards while Jayson Castro emerged as champ in playmaking in PBA Season 44.
The top performers in other key departments were Stanley Pringle (three-point shooting), Sean Anthony (steals) and Poy Erram (blocks).
Perez, the Columbian Dyip super rookie out of Lyceum U, is in contention for the MVP honors on a stellar showing which he highlighted by topping the scoring race with an average of 20.8 points per game.
The 6-foot-1 slasher/shooter showed his scoring prowess even with Gilas Pilipinas in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China. In his topnotch rookie year in the PBA, he beat all comers, becoming another young star to win the scoring honors after Terrence Romeo from 2015 to 2017 then Pringle in 2018.
Phoenix Pulse gunner Matthew Wright (18.89 ppg), Fajardo (18.87) and Bobby Ray Parks were close second, third and fourth, followed by Pringle at fifth (17.0). The next five were RR Pogoy (16.6), Anthony (16.4), Troy Rosario (15.3), Castro (15.2) then Ian Sangalang (15.1).
Fajardo, meanwhile, easily re-stamped his class as the ruler in the business of rebounding, with an average of 13.0 per game. A far second was Sangalang (8.5), followed by Raymond Almazan (8.0), Erram (7.8) and Anthony (7.6).
Castro was the barometer in dishing out assists with 6.1 per outing. Runners-up were Chris Ross (5.4), Scottie Thompson (5.0), Chris Banchero (4.89) and Robert Bolick (4.88).
Aside from being right there among the top in scoring and rebounding, Anthony also marked his rock-solid season with his season-best 2.4 steals per game, topping former steals champ Ross (2.2).
Then there’s the rise of Erram as the sultan of swats with 2.1 per outing, outperforming Japeth Aguilar (1.6), Fajardo (1.5), Almazan (1.3) and Arwind Santos (1.2).
The top guns from beyond the arc were Pringle (2.42), Pogoy (2.34), Rashawn McCarthy (2.3), Wright (2.24), Marcio Lassiter (2.17), LA Tenorio (2.15), Parks (2.13), Simon Enciso (2.083), Rosario (2.080), Baser Amer (2.07) and Paul Lee (2.06).
In terms of percentage, the deadliest were Philip Paniamogan (40.8 percent), Von Pessumal (40.6 percent) and Rey Nambatac (40.2 percent).
The deadliest from the line were Amer (87.5), Tenorio (86.3) and Lee (85.9).
Pringle, Perez and Parks were the most exposed as they all played at least 37 minutes per game.
The most error-prone were Wright (3.4), Fajardo (3.2), McCarthy (3.12), Moala Tautuaa (3.11) and Perez (3.0).