Tim Cone gave RJ Abarrientos the keys. RJ Abarrientos drove.
The sophomore guard has emerged as the top scorer in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, averaging 21.5 points per game across 12 games as Barangay Ginebra San Miguel closed the elimination round as the second seed with a 9-3 record. RJ Abarrientos is shooting 42.2% from three-point range—10th overall—and leads the conference in three-point field goals made with 3.4 per game and 41 total. He is also second in free throw shooting at 93.94%. Last season’s Rookie of the Year has become this conference’s most consistent and explosive bucket getter.
Abarrientos is the only Ginebra player in the elimination round’s top 10 scorers. He did not just make that list—he topped it.
RJ Abarrientos Is a Player Set Free
The numbers reflect what Cone has been building toward since RJ Abarrientos arrived. The PBA’s most decorated coach has always understood timing—when to develop a player quietly and when to hand him the platform. This conference, he handed Abarrientos the platform.
The result is a guard playing with the kind of freedom and confidence that statistics capture imperfectly. Forty-one three-pointers made across 12 games at 42.2% is not a hot streak—it is a player operating at a level that demands a defensive gameplan. His 93.94% from the free throw line is the mark of someone who does not waste the opportunities he earns.
RJ Abarrientos is not carrying Ginebra alone. Justin Brownlee remains reliable as ever, pouring in 30.4 points per game, which is fifth among all reinforcements. But among the local players setting the tone for their teams through the elimination round, nobody has been more consistently excellent than the former KBL Rookie of the Year.
The Rest of the Local Scoring Leaders
Jerrick Ahanmisi of the Terrafirma Dyip sits second in local scoring at 21.3 points per game behind a conference-leading 93 total field goals made and 12 four-point field goals made. The Dyip, however, failed to advance to the quarterfinals despite winning their first three games—a reminder that individual brilliance does not guarantee team results.
Sedrick Barefield of the Blackwater Bossing is third at 21.1 points per game. Robert Bolick of the NLEX Road Warriors follows at 20.5.
While RJ Abarrientos leads in scoring, Bolick leads the entire conference in assists at 8.7 per game and topped total free throws made with 65, steering the Road Warriors to the top seed in the quarterfinals. Bolick was last season’s scoring champion. This season, he is proving his value goes beyond points. Ricci Rivero of the Phoenix Fuel Masters rounds out the top five at 20.0 points per game.
Further down the list, Damian Chong Qui of guest team Macau Black Knights averaged 19.8 to finish sixth. Joshua Munzon of the Titan Ultra Giant Risers follows at seventh with 19.7 points per game, with Jenning Leung of Macau (19.3), Cjay Perez of the San Miguel Beermen (19.0), and Phoenix Shackelford of Macau (17.8) rounding out the top ten.
The Import Conversation
Among reinforcements, Bol Bol of the defending champion TNT Tropang 5G has been the dominant force. The 7-foot-3 son of the late Manute Bol led all imports in scoring at 38.2 points per game across all 12 games, topped total field goals made with 181, led two-point field goals made with 171, and blocked 4.2 shots per game. His rebounding—14.7 per game, sixth among imports—is the one number that falls short of expectations given his size, with the since-replaced James Dickey III of Phoenix leading the boards at 19.6 in eight games.
Robert Upshaw III of Blackwater ranks second among imports at 34.44 points per game, shooting 64.8% from the two-point zone and 40.9% from the four-point line with 18 makes—both tops in the conference. Bennie Boatwright of San Miguel is third at 32.4 in five games. Nuni Omot of Magnolia averaged 32.3 in just three games. Brownlee’s 30.4 puts him fifth.
Clint Chapman of Magnolia ranks sixth among imports in scoring at 27.78, followed by Cady Lalanne of NLEX at 26.0, Mubashar Ali of Terrafirma at 23.9, Michael Gilmore of Titan Ultra at 23.e7, and Jaylen Johnson of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at 23.6.
The Bigger Picture
The playoffs are set. Ginebra is the second seed and built around a young guard playing the best basketball of his career. Cone has won championships with veterans, with rebuilding projects, and with teams assembled on short timelines. He has done it by knowing exactly when to trust a player with the biggest stage.
He has learned to trust RJ Abarrientos. The numbers say that trust is well-placed.
