The 2024-25 season of the East Asia Super League has been filled with lots of talented players all over Southeast Asia. The Meralco Bolts and San Miguel Beermen are the representatives of the PBA, but what happened to their season?
Still not Globally Competitive
Despite joining in this tournament multiple times, this is SMB’s worst season as they finish the elimination round with 0 wins and 6 losses. For the side of Meralco, this isn’t their first time joining the tournament as they were so close to advancing onto the Knockout stage as they finished #4 in their Group B standings with a record of 2 wins and 4 losses. Both squads from the Philippines have been eliminated from Playoff contention.
Here are the games of the Beermen:
(October 2 2024) versus Suwon KT Sonicboom: 87 – 81 (L)
(November 13 2024) versus Taoyuan Pauian Pilots: 101 – 85 (L)
(December 18 2024) versus Hong Kong Eastern: 71 – 62 (L)
(January 8 2025) versus Hiroshima Dragonflies: 94 – 63 (L)
(January 15 2025) versus Hong Kong Eastern: 84 – 74 (L)
(February 12 2025) versus Suwon KT Sonicboom: 94 – 81 (L)
Here are the games of the Bolts:
(October 2 2024) versus Macau Black Bears: 97 – 85 (W)
(October 16 2024) versus Ryukyu Golden Kings: 77 – 74 (L)
(November 13 2024) versus Busan KCC Egis: 81 – 80 (W)
(December 18 2024) versus Busan KCC Egis: 72 – 68 (L)
(January 22 2025) versus Ryukyu Golden Kings: 89 – 71 (L)
(February 12 2025) versus New Taipei Kings: 106 – 96 (L)
From these games, we can see that it’s only Meralco who has avoided losing lopsided games unlike SMB which had the least margin of points they’ve lost is 6 points.
Playing in the 2nd oldest basketball league in the world, somewhat guarantees you to at least have that international play style and compete globally, but no. A lot of the PBA team, regardless of how many championships they had back then, are still only “good in the local setting”. The coaches aren’t that well trained in competing in international tournaments like this, the players have to adjust in the FIBA-sanctioned rules which is far from what they are used to playing in the PBA and the opponents they face are far stronger than what they normally battle against.
Reinforcement Issues
Both the San Miguel Beermen and Meralco Bolts used a number of imports in this season of EASL. This tournament allows up to 3 imports, 2 foreign and 1 Asian. But SMB just wasn’t fortunate in picking which import to allow their team to pick up a win.
SMB had EJ Anosike, Quincy Miller, Torren Jones and Jabari Narcis. They switched imports time after time, after time, and in their last game, they didn’t even have an import. For the Bolts, a lot of fans were hopeful that they could get a win since they had Ange Kouame, a Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player, play as a local for their team. That being said, they went and got 2 more foreign players which are DJ Kennedy and Akil Mitchell. But this firepower backfired at them since these players aren’t really used to playing all together on the same floor because, in the PBA, there’s only 1 import allowed to be used per team.
Team chemistry is one of the biggest issues for both of these squads. Regardless of how talented their import is, playing games and allowing the team to know how each other plays on the court is a crucial factor. Meralco almost succeeded in making the playoffs because they both interchanged using Akil Mitchell and DJ Kennedy in the PBA penultimately, they failed to make it to the next round.
Too Much Success = Fatigue
The reason why the Beermen and the Bolts were chosen to participate in this tournament is because in the previous season of the PBA, the Meralco Bolts were the Philippine Cup champions and San Miguel was the 1st Runner Up.
That being said, during the Governor’s Cup and ongoing Commissioner’s Cup of the PBA, the schedule of both squads was hectic considering these teams made the playoffs in the Governor’s Cup. The Beermen even reached the Semis where they bowed down to Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel, that team also eliminated the Bolts during their Quarterfinals match. SMB failed to make the playoffs in the Commissioner’s Cup while the Bolts were once again eliminated by Ginebra during the Quarterfinals.
Having the PBA play 4 or 5 times per week with each squad playing at least 2 games, no wonder why both San Miguel and Meralco have no more strength to compete come the playdates of EASL.
