Help on the way for TNT ‘slam’ bid with BGR set for All-Filipino return
For close to a year now, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser has been a mere spectator to his own team’s success.
A ligament tear in his left knee has kept the top overall pick in the 2022 Rookie Draft from partaking in TNT’s run-ups to the Governors’ Cup and, just a few nights ago, the Commissioner’s Cup.
His agonizing wait is almost over.
“I’m right on track,” he told the Inquirer just as his teammates reveled in the newly captured midseason crown in a nearby holding room at Araneta Coliseum. “I just can’t say which exact date or month, I can just say soon and that I’ll be playing next conference for sure.”
Ganuelas-Rosser injured his knee during TNT’s quarterfinal showdown against Rain or Shine in the previous season’s Philippine Cup.
His return couldn’t be more timely. With import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson no longer eligible to compete in the next edition of the league’s crown jewel showcase, the Tropang Giga will need all sorts of help to plug the middle and shore up their defensive core.
“For sure, with Rondae leaving, there’s going to be that defensive void,” he said. “So all of us are going to have to step up. But hopefully, me being a little bit bigger, a little bit longer—I’ll be able to help in that regard.”
No reinventions
TNT reeled in Ganuelas-Rosser through a three-team trade back in February 2024 as a means to address a front line thinned out by injuries. Soon, he will be teaming up with defensive specialist Poy Erram and former MVP Kelly Williams for a front line that is easily a threat in the Philippine Cup landscape.
At 30 and still making his way back to health, Ganuelas-Rosser said he has opted not to reinvent his game but to refine the best parts of it.
“I’m just trying to get back to who I was, because I think who I was was already good enough,” he said. “But obviously, I hope to be in better shape—and a little bit more explosive. I know it’s going to take time. But just trying to get back to how I was before.”
