WATCH: Q & A with Justin Brownlee!

Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone assures that Justin Brownlee will be a spark plug for the whole team and for a sole player, Christian Standhardinger who struggled a bit at the start of his maiden conference with the Gin Kings.

Cone believes that it’s certain for Standhardinger to make his presence felt more – now that Brownlee is set to see action with him.

“Now that he has Justin with him, and we have a healthy group around him, I think that he’ll be able to play the role that best suits him,” he told Radyo5’s Power and Play Saturday.

Standhardinger made it to the Top 10 of the statistical point race at the end of the Philippine Cup, averaging 14.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. The Gin Kings, however, succumbed to a heartbreaking loss against the eventual champions TNT Tropang Giga in the quarterfinals.

The decorated mentor heaped praise at Standhardinger’s wide defensive range and bared that they tried to make him a “true go-to guy” at least, but they realized that he’s really more of rebounder than a scorer.

“He’s really a guy who plays with great energy, and he can defend just about anybody. And he’s a great one on one defender,” he added. “And we’re trying to he’s a round peg and we’re trying to put him in a square hole because we lost Japeth, we lost Scottie.”

“So you know, we’re looking for scorers at the time and we’re looking for inside presence. And I think one of the things that we try to do with him in the bubble being in the All-Filipino, we really tried to make him a true go-to guy. And he’s really more of a dirty work guy,” he said

“He’ll do all the dirty work for you. And he’s gonna score, but he’s not going to. If you force him to be the scorer, it’s going to be more difficult. He’s not a natural scorer – he’s not gonna shoot threes, he’s not gonna pull up for jump shots. He’s limited to offensive rebounds and putbacks, and [putting] the ball on the floor and driving – kinda like a bigger Rudy Hatfield, if I may use the thing.”

Cone sees that the Fil-German forward is ready to step up his game with Brownlee and having them together is a way of redemption for the Kings, who definitely are eager to retain the Governors’ Cup title.

In fact, Brownlee and Standhardinger had already seen action in the same court before when they both played in the ASEAN Basketball League during the 2017-18 season for San Miguel Alab Pilipinas and Hong Kong Eastern respectively – where Alab seized the championship.

“I think that he will be a much, much better fit with someone like Justin around; to take the scoring load off Christian and allow Christian to do the things that he does really, really well,” explained Cone.