By Waylon Galvez
With the big improvements of his game since his successful battle with an injury, Alaska’s Vic Manuel has emerged as the leading candidate for the Best Player of the Conference in the 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
After the single-round elims, the Alaska forward has put together 37.2 Statistical Points (SP) average. He has a good chance of securing an additional 30 points if the Aces advance to the semis.
The 6-foot-4 Manuel leads the league in scoring with 24.18 points per game, 6.27 rebounds, 1.0 assist, 0.82 steal and 0.64 shot block.
Reigning four-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo of defending champion San Miguel Beer is second with 36.8 followed by GlobalPort’s Sean Anthony and Stanley Pringle with 35.4 and 35.0 SPs, respectively.
Meralco’s Chris Newsome is fifth with 33.5 SPs.
Completing the top 10 are Rain or Shine’s Raymond Almazan (31.3), Phoenix’s Matthew Wright (30.7), Ginebra’s Japeth Aguilar (30.5),
San Miguel’s Alex Cabagnot (30.5) and Troy Rosario (29.9).
For the Bobby Parks Best Import Trophy, Phoenix Fuel’s Eugene Phelps leads all contenders with 55.1 SPs.
But with the Fuel Masters already out of the playoffs, left to continue fighting are Renaldo Balkman of SMB (53.4), Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee (51.1), Reggie Johnson of ROS (49.5), Meralco’s Arinze Onuaku (45.6), Malcolm White of GlobalPOrt (36.5), and TNT’s Joshua Smith (34.8).
