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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Leo Austria feels SMB has bigger target on its back in Comm's Cup

Leo Austria feels SMB has bigger target on its back in Comm's Cup

Published Mar 8, 2026 02:20 pm

At A Glance

  • San Miguel head coach Leo Austria admitted that he's a bit worried heading into the PBA Season 50 Commissioner's Cup, believing that teams have upgraded their lineups for them to compete against the Philippine Cup titlist.

San Miguel head coach Leo Austria admitted that he’s a bit worried heading into the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup, believing that teams have upgraded their lineups for them to compete against the Philippine Cup titlist.

Austria is seeing the effort of other clubs to tap towering imports as a way to match up against the Beermen, who have banked on the dominance of June Mar Fajardo inside the paint.

“The last few weeks, alam nyo naman na naging movements sa PBA. There's a lot of trades. There's a lot of acquisition from those teams,” said Austria.

“Especially the other teams getting a lot of big imports. And isa lang nakikita ko parang to stop our big man from getting into the shaded area to score a lot of points. Just like what happened in the championship with June Mar, 29 points and 23 rebounds. And I thought na it's simply because of him,” he added.

The most anticipated import is TNT reinforcement Bol Bol, who stands as a 7-foot-3 center. Aside from his height, he is also a legitimate NBA talent having played with a couple of teams like Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns.

Converge also tapped NBA caliber import Kylor Kelly but more than their reinforcements, fans are more excited to see its new look lineup after acquiring Calvin Abueva from Titan Ultra and finally signing up Mikey Williams.

“That's why I'm so worried about this conference. We just returned to our training last Monday. And the other teams. I think two months na sila nag-training. Kami pang second week pa lang namin ngayon,” said Austria.

Knowing how tough the competition is in the mid-season conference, Austria said the team cannot afford to have a slow start like the Philippine Cup.

“We cannot afford to have another bad start with 0-2. But sana ang kung mangyari ulit, ganun uli 0-2 tas sweep. Pero this time, it's very impossible to do that again. Because a lot of teams talagang ready for this conference,” he added.

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