During the draft, everybody was talking about the likes of Greg Slaughter, Raymond Almazan, Jeric Teng, Terrence Romeo, and others. In the shadows of the draft, however, one big name was seemingly forgotten.
It was Ian Paul Sangalang.
Projected at 2nd overall, the the reigning D-League MVP and King Stag was completely underrated at the draft. And for good reason. After all, in the minds of the people, he couldn't possibly stop Greg. Or even replace Marc Pingris.
Nobody expected him to drop at San Mig Coffee, after he expressed his desire to play for sister team Barangay Ginebra. Many were expecting the short contract, which was seen as the ticket to the crowd favorites. But still, he is playing as solid as concrete.
He, up to now, has no monicker for himself. Slaughter is Gregzilla. Almazan is Rock n' Roll. Romeo is Swaggy T. Even 2nd-rounder and SMC teammate Justin Melton has earned the name "Quickmelt". But he is steady as ever.
At least, since the playoffs began.
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| Ian attempts a shot over Elmer Espiritu. |
During the start of the Philippine Cup, Sangalang was playing miserably. Missing wide-open shots and other things. For me, it was like he had the jitters. He was the complete opposite of what Tim Cone said about him. He seemingly was not PBA-ready.
As time passed by, the jitters slowly but surely disappeared. He started playing in Cone's signature triangle offense. He was slowly getting into the groove of things.
Then came the PBA Finals. By that time, he had established his spot at the San Mig Coffee rotation. After a miserable Game 1 performance, his game went up several notches higher. After a decent performance of 10 points and 6 rebounds in Game 2, Cone was all praises for him.
“Ian has been absolutely huge because we have a tendency to overplay our guys. We overplay Ping, Joe [Devance], and Rafi [Reavis],” the coach said on an interview with Yahoo! Sports. “Ian has been God-sent. Mostly because he does everything quietly.”
“Even in practice he’s very quiet. I think he’s a combination of Bong Hawkins and Reynel Hugnatan,” Cone added. “He’s that quiet operator that people really don’t notice that much but he’s absolutely killing you. Sometimes teams don’t even realize that Ian is beating them.”
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| Sangalang under the paint against JR Quinahan on Game 4 |
On Game 3, Sangalang had his best game in terms of PER. He had 12 points on 5-of-6 field goal shooting. He also added 5 boards and one steal for a Player Efficiency Rating of 28.15. If you are new to advanced statistics, a rating of 20 or higher indicates a great season, or in this situation, a game.
But the best was yet to come. He followed up his terrific performance with another great one, where in he co-top-scored for his team with 17 points and also led the team in rebounds (8). He also had an assist and steal for a PER of 25.61. He did this while Pingris left the floor due to a scratch to his eye.
On Game 6, he had 15 points behind eventual Finals MVP Mark Barocca to put the icing on the top of his very first conference, where he left his mark as one of the best rookies in the league.
We could safely say that finally, the Gregzilla has found a worthy rival for the Rookie of the Year. During the Finals he averaged 9.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in 21.7 minutes per game. He had a PER of 15.49, roughly the NBA average.
One question remains for Sangalang. Can he replace Pingris once the Pinoy Sakuragi retires? The answer remains to be seen, but the future seems to be bright for Ian Paul Sangalang (GS)
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