McDaniels embraces big role in NLEX

RETURNING import K.J. McDaniels will have a chance to flex his muscles in the PBA anew. This time, he will be playing for a new team, NLEX, which will take on San Miguel Beer when the PBA Governors’ Cup tips off on Wednesday, December 8.

McDaniels will be one among the highly-touted returning imports in the tournament. He will go up against another familiar fixture, Brandon Philip Brown of the Beermen.

Brown was a replacement import who played for the Phoenix Fuel Masters four years ago.

The Road Warriors and the Beermen square off in the main game of the scheduled double header at 6 p.m. right after the 3 p.m. match between the Alaska Aces and the NorthPort Batang Pier at the Ynares Arena in Pasig City.

For McDaniels, given another tour of duty will allow him to settle some unfinished business. He was a part of the TNT Tropang Giga squad which reached the semifinal round of the same tournament two years ago but lost to Allen Durham and the Meralco Bolts.

Now playing for the Road Warriors, the NBA veteran will have a much bigger role in leading his team to make it to the next level.

In the recent Philippine Cup, the Road Warriors, who played minus their top gun and ace playmaker Kiefer Ravena for the most part of the tournament, pushed the Bolts to the limit and fell a game short of reaching the championship round.

McDaniels will be tasked to do practically almost everything for his new squad.

The Beermen, on the other hand, will begin the new era without their mainstays as former Most Valuable Player Arwind Santos and cerebral guard Alex Cabagnot were traded a few weeks ago.

Santos was traded to GlobalPort for Vic Manuel. The 40-yearold many-time member of the league’s All-Defensive Team will now become the elder statesman of the young Batang Pier squad.

Santos will join a young team anchored on premier point guard Robert Bolick, who made a huge impact in his return after being sidelined by an ACL tear more than a year ago.

NorthPort also has a solid core led by seven-foot center Greg Slaughter and rookies Jamie Malonzo and Troy Rike.

However, much of the attention will be focused on what import Cameron Forte could bring to the squad when the Batang Pier battle the Aces on opening day. Cabagnot, meanwhile, was a part of the Terrafirma trade that sent Simon Enciso to the Beermen.