SMB VS TNT | IS MARCUS LEE ENOUGH?

It was a monster matchup last Saturday when TNT Tropang 5G faced off against the San Miguel Beermen.

TNT has basically always been one game away from achieving the grand slam, but unfortunately for them, San Miguel is usually there to thwart their plans. This is the rivalry that truly feels like the big one.

No offense to Barangay Ginebra fans, but this is MVP’s winningest team versus Ramon Ang’s winningest team.

That said, did the game deliver?

No.

Hell no.

It was a hard hell no for the Beermen, as Bol Manute Bol and the rest of TNT delivered maximum carnage on them.

And sidenote, I like how the PBA is giving Bol Bol the love treatment by adding “Manute” to his name so that we won’t call him by a name that has an unfortunate meaning in our language. I also like how the fans inside the arena are treating him as an attraction, but in a good way. Yes, the PBA is notorious for breeding ungodly trolls on social media, but at least they are helping him in some ways.

But while watching the broadcast, one question stood out.

Will San Miguel replace Marcus Lee based on this performance?

Here’s the thing—Marcus Lee actually played well. He had a combined 14 points in his first two games, and in this one, he scored 30. He was there when both June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez struggled, and it’s not like he didn’t help June Mar on the inside.

However, this is where it gets tricky. Lee got 30 points because JMF had all the defenders locked in on him. Lee is more of a supplement when a team needs an import who can take over games. Yes, he might have done just that here, but putting up numbers in a blowout isn’t really a good sign. San Miguel also lost to Titan Ultra in the opener, and it feels like they just caught Converge during their slump.

The thing about San Miguel is that they have this strange “good curse” of always advancing to the next round. I believe Lee can help take San Miguel to the next round, but winning games—or even going head-to-head with Bol Manute Bol—is another story.

There’s also another San Miguel problem. It feels like, with all the money they have from harvesting players from farm teams, they still can’t seem to land an import who can deliver a championship. The last time the Beermen won a title in an import-laden conference was the 2023–24 PBA Commissioner’s Cup with Ivan Aska. That’s not much of a drought, but their other recent title came in the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup, when they beat TNT with Chris McCullough as their import. Aska and McCullough never returned to the PBA after those titles, and that might be one reason they haven’t been able to win in succession.

Now, San Miguel—and let me include Magnolia here—has this tendency to rotate multiple imports per conference, as if their main objective is to keep searching for the one who can win them a title. The problem with that approach is this: what if they already had the import who could take them to the finals, but they chose to look for other options instead?

So I think San Miguel is in a bind right now. Unless Marcus Lee becomes further optimized, they can at best remain competitive—but they still don’t have anyone who can match up against Bol Manute Bol.