The last time the Singapore Slingers competed in the ASEAN Basketball League, it turned out to be a moment they’d rather forget as the BTN CLS Knights Indonesia celebrated winning the championship on the Slingers’ home court. It was the second time in league history that Singapore saw someone else hoist the ABL trophy at home and the pain of that defeat has made the team more adamant about putting together a stronger unit; one that could finally win it all.
The first order of business for the Slingers was to sign ABL World Import Most Valuable Player Xavier Alexander. The multi-talented wing has been a constant fixture for the squad through their ups and downs and he will be given one more chance to lead them to the promised land.
Then, it was all about selecting two imports who would complement Alexander and Singapore’s management decided to get a big and a guard, two proven players in the ABL.
The Slingers plugged their hole in the middle with a gigantic piece in Anthony McClain who first played for Mono Vampire. Then they added another supremely talent import in Marcus Elliott. The guard led Hong Kong Eastern to the ABL title in Season 7 and it was at the expense of the Slingers but now Elliott aims to win for the Singaporean fans.
Aside from these three outstanding imports, the Slingers will also rely on a couple of key locals in Delvin Goh and Leon Kwek.
Goh almost averaged a double-double in the last season with 11.2 points and 9.0 rebounds per contest. In his many years of service for the Slingers, he has improved by leaps and bounds before finally getting his career-high numbers in points and rebounds last season.
Kwek, on the other end, returns to the fold for the Slingers after missing a year. He had his best performance in Season 7 of the ABL where he averaged 10.6 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.
The Slingers will be challenged early as they take one a familiar foe in San Miguel Alab Pilipinas. Although the Philippine team has a lot of new faces in their squad, they will be playing with home-court advantage, which has always been good for them.
With only a handful of tuneup games under their belt, not a lot is known about how the Slingers changed up their game during the break and they will surely be tested early by the proud Alab squad.
