Alaska coach Trillo takes time to learn from Pacers, Rockets

MANILA, Philippines – Even after a banner season in the PBA where he won his first title, Alaska head coach Luigi Trillo is never taking a break from learning about the game.

Trillo, who led the Aces to the Commissioner’s Cup title and first championship in the post-Tim Cone era, took advantage of the NBA Global Games here in Manila.

The young Alaska head coach attended several of the NBA activities, including the coaching clinic conducted by both the Indiana Pacers and the Houston Rockets coaching staff.

“There was a lot of knowledge shared,” Trillo told Philstar.com during the welcome reception dinner for the large NBA contingent at Sofitel Manila Wednesday night.

“Yesterday [Tuesday] was good for the Filipino coaches. Nandoon ako sa taas and I was listening in. A lot of things defensively and offensively, they broke down some things which they do,” Trillo recalled

It helped that Trillo’s Aces are running some of both of the Pacers and the Rockets’ plays.

“Indiana is more of a slow-paced team where they dump the ball to their bigs. Houston naman runs a lot of up tempo. So they talked about pick and roll,” Trillo said.

“I think we run a bit more of what we do like Indiana. It’s nice for me to hear both [coaches] because we do both. We love to dump the ball to Sonny [Thoss] and a lot of single highs and pick and rolls for Jayvee [Casio],” he added

As a young coach, Trillo looks up to Vogel and Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, who traces his roots to San Pablo, Laguna.

“These guys are really roles to us [young coaches], Vogel and Spoelstra. Hearing them out it’s really nice to get into their brains,” said Trillo, who also had several encounters with the Filipino-American Miami Heat coach during his past visits in the country.  

Trillo picked up new things to experiment with but more than the wealth of knowledge he gained, it’s the deeper impact of the staging of the first ever NBA preseason game in the country which touched and inspired him.

“More than the coaches, I liked what I saw today [Wednesday]. Both teams were there. These guys have a lot of responsibility and it’s reaching out to the community. That was a nice thing to see today,” said Trillo of the NBA Cares conducted by both teams at the MOA Arena Wednesday.