A CJ Perez-Infused Beermen: How Stacked SMB is?

In an all-Filipino conference, a San Miguel Beermen team that has a healthy June Mar Fajardo leading an already stacked starting five plus a healthy Terrence Romeo coming off the bench is an unstoppable San Miguel Beermen team. 

Now that the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) five-man trade committee has approved the mind-blowing trade involving CJ Perez going to the Beermen from the TerraFirma Dyip, the question now arises: how good is this team when the PBA opens its 46th season?

In the words of Jinno Rufino in last Tuesday's episode of Jump Thru Hoops, "The team that can beat the first five (of San Miguel) is the second five (of San Miguel too),"

San Miguel's usual starting line-up in an all-Filipino conference consists of Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, and Alex Cabagnot. With this approved trade, CJ Perez will join a loaded second team that has Romeo, Von Pessumal, and Moala Tautuaa. On paper, that's a complete team and some are even saying that San Miguel can easily be chosen as the team to represent the Philippines in international competitions.

During the PBA Philippine Cup bubble in Clark last year, the Beermen entered the bubble without June Mar Fajardo and later lost Terrence Romeo to a shoulder injury. Despite the absence of key players, the Beermen managed to stay afloat in the standings and made the quarterfinals only to lose two straight in the quarterfinals against the Meralco Bolts. But, the numbers showed that the Beermen still had enough firepower to do some damage.

Moala Tautuaa was their leading scorer with an 18-point per game average during the elimination round. He also shot 36% from the three-point line. Marcio Lassiter averaged 15 points while Arwind Santos and Alex Cabagnot normed 13 points ap[iece. Terrence Romeo, in the three games that he played in Clark, averaged 13 points too. 

Meanwhile, CJ Perez was the league's leading scorer with 24 points per game. 

On paper, this line-up of San Miguel is loaded with offensive juggernauts that can dominate the league in a snap of Coach Leo Austria's fingers but as Rufino mentioned, "We have to see the eye test to see if they manage to work together,"

Photo is from ESPN