Young, wild and free

So this is Junemar's league, huh?
(Photo credit to the owner)

Just when you thought that the Talk'n'Text Tropang Texters needed a back-to-the-basket center to combat 2x PBA MVP Junemar Fajardo and champs San Miguel...

... they added a face-up, burly "center" who really plays more like a small forward in 6"7 Moala Tautuaa, another 6"7 rebounding sniper in Troy Rosario, and a 6"4 hard-nosed banger (who is arguably their best low post player outside of star Ranidel de Ocampo) in Larry Rodriguez.

Why play traditional when you can play position-less?

The "Jayson Castro Era" (which already features a championship) of TNT basketball is off to a hot start, on paper at least, as the league is looking at arguably the most versatile roster ever assembled. Adding to the above-mentioned forwards are Mat Ganuelas Rosser, Kelly Williams, Danny Seigle and the guy who basically stopped Rain or Shine's Paul Lee dead on his tracks, Harvey "I can play whatever role you want me to play" Carey.

We don't know about you, but that frontline is as interchangeable as you can get.

Throw in battle-tested guards Ryan Reyes, Larry Fonacier and Aron Aban plus new recruits Denok Miranda and Dylan Ababou to play with Castro and well, we don't really know what to tell you other than this team, as it is, could be a national team core from players maybe 1 to 8 (10 even).

Running the dribble drive is a no brainer, but given the manpower this team can adjust to any style of basketball depending on the opponent and situation. They can run with Rain or Shine, they can play half court with San Miguel and Ginebra, they even have the right guys to play grit-and-grind wear-you-down basketball with Alaska.

Basically, this is the basketball God's way of rewarding Jong Uichico, for the embarrassment he suffered over at Team SMC when he was asked to "co-coach" Ginebra that one year.

How good is TNT?

We have a feeling that we will see them and San Miguel in the PBA Finals a lot.

Crispa-Toyota style.