While most of the teams had decided to tap reinforcements who were already proven scorers, Blackwater head coach Ariel Vanguardia was standing by his decision to tap an import like Cameron Krutwig who may not be as explosive as the other imports but can help the team and the rest of the local players look better.
And Blackwater’s victory over San Miguel, 109-106, on Wednesday, Oct. 5, served as a vindication of some sort to those beliefs as Krutwig put up his first triple-double of 20 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists, helping the Bossing get over the hump against the San Miguel Beermen who had their number in their past encounters
“He’s not the typical import that will score 40 for you but he makes us better, he makes everybody better. If we get an import who’s gonna score 50 and 40 points, it doesn’t help us because the other team got those kinds of imports and ganun din eh mas magagaling locals nila, mas maganda pare-pareho kaming nag iimprove with Cam,” said Vanguardia as his team now improved to a 2-2 record in the standings.
Krutwig also anchored a blistering 18-4 run to open the payoff period which erased the double-digit deficit before he turned to his local crew led by Mike Ayonayon and Baser Amer who then delivered key baskets down the stretch.
While other imports from the other teams have been putting up monster numbers in the scoreboard—Terrafirma’s Lester Prosper scoring 43 and 41 in two of his first three games, Nick Rakocevic dropping conference-high 45 points and Bay Area import Myles Powell impressing with 41 points interestingly against Blackwater—Vanguardia believes the role playing imports could be the winning formula this season.
He even cited NorthPort and its import Prince Ibeh who haven’t really had a stellar offensive game yet but had been providing a lot of intangibles for the Batang Pier.
“NorthPort is doing the same thing. Locals are stepping up, Prince Ibeh is giving them a lot of intangibles so maganda yung basketball so nakikita natin na ganun and the last time that Rain or Shine won the championship they had an import who can do it all, a team player, so baka yun yung formula,” said Vanguardia referring to Rain or Shine’s 2015 Commissioner’s Cup title run then led by import Pierre Henderson-Niles.
Henderson-Niles, back then, wasn’t really an explosive scorer but had provided the Elasto Painters the rebounding and solid presence inside the paint.
“We’re trying to do a Rain or Shine, Cam mag-improve pa, he’s just 23 years old kita naman pag sinabing aggressive, he had 15 in the first half and he was passing the ball second half.”