San Mig Coffee bets the house on Mallari

More "you reach, I teach" sessions for Mallari
now that he's with James Yap

What a difference back-to-back ass-whoopings makes in the PBA huh?

In a surprising turn of events, the San Mig Coffee Mixers decided to part ways with underutilized yet very promising former PBA Finals MVP Jonas Villanueva, JC Intal and Aldrech Ramos to bring in Petron's rookie Alex Mallari, Barako Bull veteran and under-sized power forward Leo Najorda and another rookie pint-sized point guard Lester Alvarez.

See, we tried to defend this move by saying that the Mixers did it in order to stretch their rotation and become "deeper." Then we took a look at the names on the roster, the ones that they're sending away and the ones who are coming in and it didn't take too long for us to realize that that rationale wasn't going to stick. There's Villanueva, a guy who was plagued by injuries under head coach Tim Cone but showed that he knew how to run the point position to a "T" when he's healthy. Intal may have not blossomed into the elite perimeter defender/ Scottie Pippen to James Yap's Michael Jordan project that we all hoped for but the guy has tremendous hops and can move on the hard court. Then there's rookie Aldrech Ramos, a 6"7 guy who plays defense and has a nice soft touch from the perimeter.

Those guys are out, and in comes a trio of guys who are unproven at best. Najorda is due for a breakout season, but that will probably only happen if he ever lands at the hands of his former coach Yeng Guiao over at Rain or Shine. Under Cone, we don't really see him playing that many minutes simply because he's undersized and the Triangle Offense doesn't run through the 4 position (usually just involves the guards and high post playing centers). At the very least, they'll have a guy who is tough enough to handle RoS' Jervy Cruz down the block and put up points on the board.

Alvarez strutted his wares over in the UAAP and PBA D-League, but he won't be given minutes considering that the team is fully invested in the continued rise and growth of lead guard Mark Barroca. He'll be a 3rd string guard at best, and will instantly be a defensive liability when the Mixers face teams with big and strong point guards. This one doesn't really make any sense, since Villanueva could do all that and more-- just needed time to be on the floor and out of Cone's dog house.

Lastly, we have Alex Mallari. A wiry guard who thrives in the uptempo game will finally get his wish to start anew and make waves in the pros. The ceiling for this guy is to turn out into the next Jared Dillinger, or if he works on his defense, the next Gabe Norwood. Coach Cone hinted at Mallari playing the PG alternating with Barroca or even with the two playing together. This doesn't solve anything. Scoring wasn't the issue with this team regardless of how silly they were made to look in the two series versus Rain or Shine-- it's their defense. Barroca has grown to become quite the defender, as has PJ Simon, but no one plays D in the perimeter after those guys and we're not sure that bringing in Mallari solves any of that.

Trades are made to help address weaknesses in the team first and foremost, we're pretty sure that even the biggest Mixers fan will agree with us when we say that they lost a bit too much (read: a player too many) in this trade. Fortunately for them, they managed to sneak in a future draft pick.