While other Philippine Basketball Association teams moved to strengthen their lineups for the coming PBA season the Mahindra Floodbuster seemed to have done the exact opposite.
A busy off season saw Mahindra trading away its best players including KG Canaleta, Aldrich Ramos, Paolo Taha, Bradwyn Guinto and promising talent Keith Agovida.
Point guard LA Revilla and bruiser Mark Yee remain the only holdover of a core that powered the team to its first post-season appearance in the PBA during the Governors Cup.
At first blush this looks like a recipe for disaster, but Mahindra head coach Chris Gavina retains faith in his players and is convinced that his team remains competitive this coming season.
“We’ve got some dynamic guys in our roster now and it adds great dimension on our team. It allows you to be adventurous in the lineup, so we can see more exciting line-ups for Mahindra in the coming season,” Gavina said.
He has reason to be optimistic. Mahindra newcomers Jeckster Apinan, Josan Nimes and rookie Reden Celda will not contribute much but the team did get quality veterans in Alex Mallari, Ryan Arana and big man Rob Reyes.
Mahindra’s biggest name players may have left but its most important player in Revilla remains. For better or for worse Mahindra is now Revilla’s team to run.
The 5’7” spitfire has made a career of being underestimated from high school to college and now the PBA. Playing for the De La Salle University Green Archers underclassman Thomas Torres displaced him from the starting lineup.
He only regained his starting job after Torres came down with an injury. Revilla then led La Salle to the University Athletic Association of the Philippines throne.
Despite that achievement he was picked only in the third round as the 24th overall pick by the GlobalPort Batang Pier. He was released by the team and only clung on to a job as a professional basketball player after expansion team Kia (now Mahindra) joined the league in 2014.
Revilla gets his chance to lead the new core of the Mahindra Floodbuster this coming 2017 PBA season.
Mahindra also came away a big winner in the past PBA Rookie Draft by getting amateur standouts Russel Escoto and Joseph Eriobu. The two are easily among the best players coming into the PBA this year and are expected to make an immediate impact.
Last conference, Gavina demonstrated his ability to coach by transforming Mahindra into a playoff contender in the season-ending Governors’ Cup. A lot of that hinged on their being able to field a big import in James White who was 6’9” while the higher ranked teams could only field imports who were 6’5” or shorter.
White and Revilla dominated in their positions to lead Mahindra to fifth place after the eliminations. They eventually lost to Meralco in the quarterfinals but the team benefits from the confidence gained when they advanced to the playoffs.
Mahindra tallied six wins that conference beating powerhouse squads San Miguel Beermen, Talk N Text KaTropa and the Alaska Aces as well as Star Hotshots, GlobalPort Batang Pier and Blackwater Elite.
Mahindra won’t have that handicapping advantage this season because all the PBA teams will now have a uniform height limit of 6’10” for their imports in the Governors Cup.
Gavina however remains optimistic. Last season Mahindra showed that it could compete on even terms even against powerhouse squads. Gavina promised to build on that past success and do even better this season.
“It’s my job to form a competitive team regardless of who’s here. Hopefully, we’ll be able put up a team just like what we had last conference,” Gavina said.
“As long as we stay committed to our level of excellence and everybody buys in to our culture of playing together and being selfless, we’ll be highly competitive once again.”
The series of trades caught many by surprise but coach Gavina believes their new acquisitions will step up once they take the PBA stage.
Mahindra may have gutted its lineup and sent its best players off to other teams but coach Gavina guarantees those remaining will play their best. Their team may not make the playoffs in any of the three conferences this coming season, but it won’t be for lack of trying.