PBA: San Miguel Beermen to conduct top to bottom evaluation after early exit from Governors’ Cup

After bombing out of the playoffs for the second straight conference, San Miguel Beer active consultant Todd Purves said everything the team did this year will be “evaluated from top to bottom” as it tries to redeem itself from another fruitless campaign this season.

“It’s disappointing when it ends this way,” Purves said shortly after San Miguel bowed out following its 90-97 PBA Governors Cup quarterfinal loss to twice-to-beat San Mig Super Coffee on Tuesday.

“There are not any options. But we’re gonna keep working. We’ll evaluate the tape, we’ll evaluate the personnel, we’ll evaluate coaching, from top to bottom, the organization will evaluate. Then we’ll make the right decisions, the best decisions moving forward,” added the American consultant, who worked  with rookie coach Biboy Ravanes on the sidelines for the last two conferences.

Despite having what is arguably the best front court roster owing to the presence of emerging star center June Mar Fajardo and reigning MVP Arwind Santos, along with a bevy of guards like Chris Ross, Solomon Mercado, and Marcio Lassiter, the Beermen finished the 39th season of the league without a championship.

Purves explained the Beermen will have to regroup and work more on becoming a defense-minded team, something he has tried to instill, along with Ravanes, since they took over before the start of the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup.

“Certainly, we got to get back to some fundamental defense, which we didn’t carry this entire conference,” he said.

“I think we’re looking at getting our defensive identity back and the pressure defense we like to play, getting to the mental perspective of playing good defense on full 48 minutes,” added Purves, who led the Indonesia Warriors to the Asean Basketball League (ABL) championship in the 2012 season.

The Beermen came close to winning a PBA title last season when they made it all the way to the Governors Cup Finals, only to lose to the Mixers in a seven-game championship series under then coach Gee Abanilla. - Richard Dy, SPIN