Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) teams playing in the East Asia Super League (EASL) will improve as time passes.

EASL chief executive officer Henry Kerins cited Meralco, which clinched its first PBA title after competing in the Asian competition, as a testament to how PBA teams will get stronger after seeing action in the tournament.

The Bolts will open their EASL campaign against the Macau Black Bears on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena at 8:10 p.m.

“Meralco played in the EASL and played against the best teams in Asia. When they came back, they won their first championship,” Kennis said.

“If you play against the best of the best and fine-tune that, how do you bring it back to your leagues and take advantage of that?”

Meralco finished last season’s EASL campaign with a 1-5 win-loss record in Group B.

But it proved to be a catalyst for the Bolts as after that tournament, they won their first-ever PBA Philippine Cup trophy after beating San Miguel Beer in six games.

Now returning this season with reinforcements DJ Kennedy and naturalized player Ange Kouame backing up Meralco, head coach Luigi Trillo wants to improve from last season and hopes for a deep run in the EASL.

“We want to do good in both because we’ll be carrying the flag to EASL against quality teams.”

“So, we’ll have to manage that but we’re confident,” Trillo said.