The San Miguel Beermen may have won the 2023-2024 PBA Commissioner’s Cup eight months ago, but to the PBA’s winningest franchise, that seems like an eternity ago. 

It may be the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings that can take the title as the PBA’s most popular franchise, but the Beermen remain the San Miguel Corporation’s (SMC) crown jewel. SMB’s 29 PBA championships are the most by any PBA team, nearly double the Gin Kings’ current total of 15. They also have the league’s best player in June Mar Fajardo, who could very well be the PBA’s greatest player of all time when all is said and done. 

None of these, however, will take away the pain of another postseason exit. 

San Miguel was hoping to continue the trend of alternating victories with Barangay Ginebra in their 2024 PBA Governors’ Cup semifinal series and had a shot at doing so in the final minutes. 

It felt as if the Beermen left a ton of points on the board despite making more than half of their attempts from inside the 3-point line. They had 21 offensive rebounds in Game 6, nine more than the Gin Kings’ total, and yet it was Ginebra who made the crucial plays down the stretch. 

SMB is a team of lofty standards and as such, it feels like every conference is championship or bust. Each move they’ve made has solidified their status as a title contender and translated to championships in the mid to late 2010s. However, they’ve only won two titles since the pandemic. 

San Miguel’s reliance on Fajardo has been evident and it has paid dividends in the past, but it may be getting to the point where they will need to give Fajardo extra support in the frontcourt. Meanwhile, the Beermen’s backcourt hasn’t been short on talent; it’s consistency that has at times eluded them. One or two players will normally have a great night, while the others will be firing blanks. It’s rare to see everyone have a great night, but such is the case when the minutes are limited. 

The youth movement isn’t tenable at the moment as their younger players haven’t been deployed during high-leverage situations. Next year’s draft is another plausible option, but that seems like a lifetime away. Thus, a trade would be the easy solution and an unpopular one among fans. The Arvin Tolentino to the SMC group rumors will certainly heat up and they have the assets to make the trade more palatable to the PBA. SMB could also put their hat into the Troy Rosario sweepstakes without compromising what would then become a deep San Miguel frontcourt. 

Regardless, the San Miguel Beermen will be back. They can get to the postseason on their talent alone and will likely do so in the 2024-2025 PBA Commissioner’s Cup. But what happens beyond that depends on how they address the holes that were exposed in the 2024 PBA Governor’s Cup, where they learned that hard work beats talent when talent just isn’t enough.