Macau lost by 60 and by 55 in seven days. The PBA's guest seat should come with a roster promise

I like guest teams in the PBA. A team from Macau in the Governors' Cup gives a league in its 50th season new opponents, new crowds and a reason for fans abroad to watch. But in the last seven days Macau lost to NLEX by 60, the biggest winning margin in PBA history, and to TNT by 55. That is not a contest any more. My view is simple: a guest team should promise to keep its roster for the whole conference, and if it cannot, it should not get the seat next time.

Before the break, Macau were competitive

The numbers from July and early August show a team that belonged. Macau lost their first four games, but one of them was a 106-103 game against TNT, the defending champions. Then they beat Titan Ultra 132-126 and Terrafirma 96-92. After eight games they were 2-6, and they had lost by an average of about 16 points, with one big defeat, 131-79 to San Miguel Beer.

Those are the results of a weak team, not a broken one. Plenty of PBA clubs have had seasons like that.

After the break, they were a different team

During the break, Macau lost import De'Vondre Perry and three regular players: Damian Chongqui, Ramon Cao and Jenning Leung. Perry and Chongqui had scored 60 points between them in the July game against TNT. The new import, Oscar Lopez, has been excellent on his own, with 36 points against NLEX and 43 against TNT.

One man cannot do it alone. Since the restart Macau are 0-3, and they have lost 138-78, 146-127 and 142-87. That is 134 points in three games, about 45 a game. In the loss to NLEX they had only nine players.

Who pays for that

It is not only Macau who lose. Group A has a real race for seeding, and a win over a team losing by 45 a game counts the same as a hard-fought win over a contender. TNT beat Macau by 55 on Tuesday. That counts exactly as much as the 116-98 win over San Miguel Beer three days earlier. A guest team that falls apart in the middle of a conference changes the table for everyone else.

The fans pay too. A 60-point game is not entertainment. It is a scrimmage that costs a ticket.

What I would ask for

Not a ban. The PBA should keep inviting teams from abroad. But the deal should include three things:

• The roster at the start of the conference stays, apart from injuries and one import change.
• A guest team must dress at least 12 players for every game.
• If it cannot keep those promises, it does not come back for the next conference.

PBA clubs already work under roster rules. A guest team, which has no local fan base waiting for next season, should accept stricter ones.

The bottom line

Macau were 2-6 and competitive in August. They are 2-9 and losing by 45 in October. The league did nothing wrong by inviting them. It will do something wrong if it invites the next guest without a promise that the team it sees in July is the team that plays in October.

If a guest team cannot keep its import and its core together for one conference, the PBA should give the seat to someone who can.

Update: Macau will not be invited back. Why that is right, and why the guest seat should stay.