Rated PG: A Look at 4 Point Guard Debuts in the PBA
Original photo source: PBA Images
Don’t let the June Mar Fajardo MVP dominance fool you. Real talk: The PBA is a point guard-driven league.
Year in and year out, the point guard position has been the most stacked across all 12 teams. The pipeline never gets exhausted, as gifted floor generals enter the league via the local collegiate ranks, the pro platform that is the MPBL, and the overseas scene on both sides of the Pacific.
In the most recent PBA Draft, six point guards were taken in the 1st round, including two of the top three selections. Need we say more?
The point guard parade was in full swing on Day 2 of the Season 49 Governors’ Cup—a playdate that saw four talented specimens make their debut with their respective teams. Three of these studs are rookies fresh from the Draft, while a certain Stingray had his first outing with his new team.
How did these point guards fare in their new environment? Let’s take a closer look.
Sedrick Barefield
Grade for PBA debut: B+
The very first point guard taken in the 2024 PBA Draft was Sedrick Barefield. “No pressure,” said absolutely no one.
As the second overall pick, Barefield bears the weight of helping lift a historically underwhelming franchise from the cellar. It’s a tough situation to be in, and Barefield—whose basketball journey includes Taiwan, Europe, and the NBA G League—will figure it out sooner or later. Even if it means learning lessons by way of losses.
This past Tuesday, Barefield had his first taste of PBA action against the hard-hitters of Rain or Shine. In this 110-97 loss, the Blackwater rookie struggled to find an offensive rhythm, as his speed and athleticism were curtailed by the physicality of Coach Yeng Guiao’s wards.
In his first four minutes on the court, Barefield was defended by Adrian Nocum, Andrei Caracut, and Gian Mamuyac. Then, late in the third quarter, Coach Yeng assigned the bulkier Shaun Ildefonso to hound Barefield. This constant shuffling of defenders kept Barefield from stringing together a series of high-quality possessions.
The numbers show the damage inflicted by the Elasto Painters, as Barefield finished with 4 turnovers and just 1 assist. He went just 1-of-5 from beyond 23 feet, with his lone conversion coming late in the first quarter.
On the opposite end of the floor, Barefield also had a hard time staying in front of scorers like Caracut and Mamuyac. Moving forward, head coach Jeff Cariaso—who was a highly regarded two-way player in his time—will have to fine-tune Barefield’s footwork so that he can prevent opposing ball handlers from getting paint touches.
To be fair, Barefield doesn’t have the luxury of a stellar supporting cast. Hardly anyone on the Blackwater lineup fits the description of “explosive scorer,” and on top of that, their import Ricky Ledo shot a miserable 17.4% from the field in his 12-point PBA debut.
Still, the future remains bright for Barefield, who finished with 18 points on a 40% shooting clip. There are many things to work on, but one thing that’s not on his to-do list is mind the pressure.
“The only expectations I try to focus on is what the team has to do,” Barefield told reporters prior to the game. “That’s my main focus…going out there each night, just being present, and doing our best to win games.”
Felix Lemetti
Grade for PBA debut: A-
Not all rookies, of course, have to deal with the pressure of becoming a franchise cornerstone. Sana all.
In contrast to Barefield’s predicament, Felix Lemetti can afford to blend in the background for a while as he learns the ropes from his seasoned teammates. Despite these relatively lower expectations—or, perhaps, because of them—Lemetti had a blast in his PBA unveiling.
“I’m happy with the performance of our rookies,” said RoS coach Yeng Guiao in the post-game press conference. “Caelan played well. Felix played well.”
Coach Yeng’s voice was definitely in the head of the Fil-Swedish point guard when he entered the game with 9:56 to go in the 2nd quarter. Though his primary focus was setting the table for his teammates, Lemetti had no qualms with shooting the rock when he got good looks.
With a little over five minutes to go in the quarter, Lemetti swung the ball to a trailing Santi Santillan, who drilled the outside shot to give the rookie his first assist in the league. On the next possession, Lemetti made his first PBA basket in emphatic fashion—nailing a three of his own despite an overeager challenge by Blackwater’s DJ Mitchell. The 27-foot arc was right there, but Lemetti—who drilled the bonus shot—got a 4-point play the old-fashioned way.
Because Rain or Shine has such a stacked backcourt, Lemetti sat out most of the 3rd quarter. When he checked back in at around the 2:00 mark, he crossed paths with second-year guard James Kwekuteye, who decided to have a little fun with the rookie. On two consecutive possessions, Kwekuteye harassed Lemetti in the backcourt, even getting a steal and a fastbreak bucket.
The RoS rookie, however, ended up getting the last laugh as he drained another long-distance shot to push RoS’ lead to 21 by the end of the 3rd quarter. At the end of the game, Lemetti’s total of 11 points outshone the production of his backcourt peers Mamuyac (10), Nocum (8), and Anton Asistio (9).
Given Coach Yeng’s penchant for shuffling his starting lineups, it’s plausible that Lemetti’s numbers will fluctuate in the coming games. Then again, Rain or Shine has never been about mind-blowing individual production. As long as the Fil-Swedish surprise package continues to maximize his physical and cerebral gifts, he should be just fine.
Evan Nelle
Grade for PBA debut: B
With the exception of a few basketball savants, no one in the Filipino basketball community knew much about Felix Lemetti prior to the Draft. The same cannot be said for the guy taken six spots after him.
Evan Nelle knows the spotlight all too well, having drawn plenty of attention since his high school days in San Beda. Nelle’s well-decorated college career—which includes both an NCAA title and a UAAP championship—only amplified the anticipation for his move to the pro ranks.
By some twist of fate, the spitfire guard fell to the second round, where Northport gladly picked him up. Though we might never know why several teams passed on him, this much we can say after seeing him play: Evan Nelle is 100% PBA-ready.
It wasn’t so much his production on the scoring end—after all, he converted on just one field goal out of four attempts—as it was his demeanor and steadiness. For all of the 13 minutes he played against TNT on Tuesday, Nelle stayed within himself, setting up teammates and not forcing anything on offense.
“I’m a facilitator. I’m a pass-first guy,” said the 5-foot-10 guard during the PBA’s Media Day. “If I had to compare myself to a PBA player…maybe my OG idol, Jvee Casio.”
That’s a spot-on comparison, not only because of the San Beda and La Salle connections but also the similarities in their gameplay. In the game against TNT, Nelle was frequently Casio-esque, in that he was constantly a threat whenever he came off screens, keeping his defender guessing whether he’d pull up or drive to the rack.
On multiple occasions in the second half, Nelle delivered picture-perfect passes right in his teammates’ shooting pocket. The best pass he threw all night came in the final minute of the 3rd quarter, when he grabbed the rebound off a Glenn Khobuntin miss and pitched the ball to a streaking Allyn Bulanadi for a wide-open layup.
Sooner or later, Nelle will better adapt to the PBA landscape and unleash his scoring self. When that happens, the Northport offense bannered by Arvin Tolentino will become even more potent. Import Taylor Johns has established himself as a beast down low, which should bode well for Nelle as the floor general looks for his shots off pick-and-rolls.
For now, Nelle’s best contribution to the Batang Pier is his calm and composed vibe. But it’s only a matter of time before he stuffs the stat sheet with his booming triples and masterful midrange pull-ups. Now that will be attention-grabbing.
Rey Nambatac
Grade for PBA debut: B+
In the first three quarters of that Northport-TNT game, Rey Nambatac caught Chot Reyes’ attention. The problem was, it happened for all the wrong reasons.
Nambatac, of course, was a prized acquisition by the Tropang Giga prior to the start of Season 49. Whereas Barefield, Lemetti, and Nelle had to come off the bench for their debuts, the Stingray got the starting nod this past Tuesday.
Unfortunately for Nambatac, a hot start wasn’t in the cards. Some of TNT’s first few possessions in the game featured a Nambatac charging foul and a Nambatac turnover as he stepped out of bounds on a baseline drive.
The rest of Nambatac’s first half was largely uneventful, partly because he was sharing ball-handling duties with the returning Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Though Nambatac scored on a drive defended by the rookie Nelle early in the 2nd quarter, he was pulled out of the game a minute later as Reyes dug deep into his bench to find a lineup that would truly click.
Coming off the halftime break, it was more of the same for Nambatac. The contrast between Castro-driven lineups and Nambatac-led fives was stark, as TNT barely had any offensive flow when Nambatac was the primary ball handler. The Tropang Giga did a good job of keeping Northport at bay, but it was because RHJ was putting in the work with his scoring.
Here’s the thing about stingrays, though: It’s the tail end that stings.
Midway through the third quarter, Nambatac started doing what he should have done more frequently since tip-off: get two feet in the paint. Whereas he appeared to be competing with RHJ for touches in the first half, Nambatac established better on-court rapport with his import by running more high screen-and-roll action.
Thanks to this two-man game, TNT’s offense hummed pretty nicely in the last 18 minutes. Nambatac set up RHJ for easy baskets, dished hockey assists to help teammates like Calvin Oftana get high-quality looks, and even attacked the opposing import Johns on switches.
Nambatac’s tandem with Hollis-Jefferson, however, could use a bit more work, as an errant inbound pass to RHJ led to another Northport possession with 24.4 seconds to go. The Batang Pier were down by just four, and the league’s newest on-court feature could have sent the game into overtime.
But Northport failed to even get a four-point shot off the ground, and seconds later, TNT was picking up its first win of the conference. When all was said and done, Nambatac had 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists to show for his troubles in the 101-95 Tropang Giga victory.
Quite often in basketball, the way you finish matters more than how you performed in the opening minutes. Nambatac—the veteran floor general that he is—knows that a great start wouldn’t hurt, either.
“Itong first game ko against Northport, para sa ‘kin, it’s a test of character,” Nambatac told reporter Reuben Terrado after the game. “Hopefully, by the time na patapos na ‘yung eliminations, mabuo na talaga ‘yung chemistry na gusto ko, ‘yung hinahanap ko.”
