April 18 Power Ranking: The Dominance

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We are already in the middle of the elimination round and several teams are already separating themselves from the group.

Take note, I am ranking the teams according to their viability of winning the crown this season.

#12 NLEX Road Warriors

I have this feeling that coach Yeng is not that sad with the current state of his team. I am not trying to say that he is fine with losing but I am pretty sure he is salivating for the upcoming 2017 PBA Draft.

#11 Mahindra Enforcers

Replacing James White was a huge mistake! The guy was romping on both ends of the court in the four games that he played (30.5 Pts, 18.5 Rebs, 2.5 Blks, 53.8% FG). And by the way, his replacement is producing 37.8% FG, 13.5 Rebs and 4.5 Asts.

#10 Blackwater Elite

The injury bug has bitten the Elite, pretty bad. Greg Smith is a hell of an import (29.4 Pts, 23.2 Rebs, 3.6 Asts) but expect the Ls to pile up if the two locals that are playing the most minutes per game are James Sena and Michael DiGregorio.

#9 Phoenix Fuel Masters

Coach Ariel Vanguardia made some adjustments to their scheme for this conference as seen by the decrease of their three-point attempts per game. Unfortunately, they are the least efficient team from the outside.

#8 Globalport Batang Pier

Even if they continue to struggle, Batang Pier could still end up in the playoffs by default. What I mean is, the four teams above are so bad that an unworthy Globalport team could end up in the playoffs. One key to turn this around is the defense of their frontline.

#7 TNT Ka-Tropa

They are lighting it up in offense but their defense is below-average so far. Donte Green is playing like one of the worst import in this conference, but the upside is there. If he can turn it around, expect TNT to rise up in the standing and in this ranking.

#6 Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel

I am not a big fan of using Justin Brownlee in this conference. Brownlee could be one of the most skilled import in this conference but the presence of the gigantic foreign enforcers had been forcing him to take more midrange shot that necessary.

#5 Rain or Shine Elasto Painters

Number-wise, Rain or Shine is not putting up a lot of insane numbers but they are still piling up the wins. One thing that they may need to consider is replacing Shawn Taggart who has underwhelming numbers of 25.0 points, 12.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 14.3% 3FG.

#4 Meralco Bolts

Coach Norman Black continue to mold this team into a legit contender. The list of their victim this conference includes San Miguel, Rain or Shine and Alaska. The Bolts are giving up the least points per game and second least assist per game. If the core keep up their focus on the defensive end, we could see the Orange Men in the Finals, once again.

#3 Star Hotshots

The Star are doing a lot of the underrated things, pretty well. They are the second best in terms of taking care of the ball and they are giving up the third least amount of fastbreak points. One vital thing though that coach Chito should realize is the low playing time of Allein Maliksi (14.4 Pts, 40% 3FG, 2.6 Rebs).

#2 Alaska Aces

Alaska is knocking the most three-pointers per game at 10.0. The awesome thing is, they are the second most efficient team from beyond the arc. Alaska is not only the best three-point shooting team on the offensive end but they are also the best on the defensive end, limiting their opponent to 5.3 per game.

#1 San Miguel Beermen

The dominance continue. Fajardo is looking like an import this conference with his 23.0 points, 63.3% FG, 10.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists. The bad news for the 11 other teams is the amazing shooting of Ross, Lassiter, Santos and Cabagnot. All of them are knocking 40% or more of their long bombs.