Cone dismisses David explosion

Newly-activated winger Jayson David had a stellar debut and helped Barangay Ginebra rediscover its winning ways.

Head coach Tim Cone, however, wasn’t surprised at all with the performance of the former 3x3 standout.

“It wasn’t anything actually special. Sorry to say, it wasn’t anything special. He does that in practice every day,” the decorated tactician said of David after he dropped 25 points in Ginebra’s 131-106 rout of NorthPort in a mighty bounce back in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup on Wednesday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Just last Tuesday, the 6-foot-3 David was inserted into the Kings’ lineup in lieu of veteran guard LA Tenorio’s relegation to the unrestricted free agent list with rights to salary list.

Tenorio requested some time off to concentrate on his national team duties as head coach of the Gilas Pilipinas Youth.

David took advantage of the opportunity and came up with a breakout game.

He played an almost perfect game, going 8-for-9 from the field with a perfect 4-of-4 three-point clip while adding nine rebounds, three assists and two steals in almost 22 minutes of action.

“My mindset is just to be ready, whether I’m on the (active) lineup or not. I just want to be ready all the time if the team needs me,” the 20th overall pick in the 2022 PBA Draft said after powering the Kings to a 2-1 win-loss slate.

“In practice, I do whatever I can to help the team, I play defense for them to be ready (for the game).”

Cone always believed in what the Lyceum of the Philippines University product could bring to the table for the Kings.

“Well, to me, Jayson has paid the price. I mean, he has done everything that he needed to do. He’s a guy who comes to work, really, every day. The players were all talking about the preseason when we came back from the finals. He was the MVP of the preseason,” he said.

In fact, the 25-time champion coach has always contemplated how to get David into the main team.

“We’ve been wanting to find ways to get him onto the lineup, but because we have a veteran lineup, we don’t want to remove any of our veterans. When L.A. had to take a break to focus on his coaching with the junior national team, Junior Gilas, they opened up an avenue for Jayson. But this is something we’ve been wanting to do for quite a while, get Jayson into the lineup,” he added.

“It’s just been a difficult thing with a talented team like Ginebra. He paid his dues, and he played today like he plays in practice.”

Tenorio is expected to rejoin Ginebra at the conclusion of the SEABA qualifiers of the FIBA U16 Asia Cup in Pampanga, which will run from 24 to 30 May.

Cone, however, assured David he’ll look for ways to keep him on the roster as long as he stays consistent.

“We hope we can open up a slot for Jayson to stay in the lineup. Obviously, he needs to stay as well as he’s playing,” he said.