Letting go of Slaughter ‘bittersweet’ for Cone

Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone said it was bittersweet to let go of Greg Slaughter to get his hands on Christian Standhardinger.

Last March, Ginebra sent the 7-foot Slaughter to the NorthPort Batang Pier in exchange for the 6-foot-8 Standhardinger.

“It’s always bittersweet because Greg Slaughter and I were very close,” Cone said in ‘The Chasedown’ on Saturday.

Cone, the winningest coach in the history of Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), shared that the plan all along for Slaughter was to become the focal point of Ginebra’s offense but his injuries hampered such.

“We wanted him to be our Shaq in the triangle offense and built the offense around them. He had a lot of misfortunes in terms of injuries. We weren’t really able to fully immerse him into what we wanted to do. the time he was out of injuries and by the time we got him back in, we were already progressing to something else. He was always trying to catch up to what we are doing.

“But there is no doubt about it, he was really a talented guy. He and I were very close. When I heard about the trade, it was bittersweet,” said Cone.

While the trade was tough for Slaughter, Cone said that being with NorthPort should bode well for the 2017 Governors’ Cup Best Player of the Conference.