Trade reactions/ free agent signings

This guy just keeps getting traded
and traded and traded...

We are literally just five days away from the opening of the 42nd season of the PBA; with fans already buzzing in excitement and anticipation of what's to come.

Can San Miguel defend their crown? Is Ginebra good enough to unseat their sister team minus Justin Brownlee? Will Alaska break the curse of The Kraken? Who can lead his new team to more wins: James Yap, Paul Lee or Coach Yeng Guiao?

But before that, here are a few other trades/ signings that happened just recently and what we think of it all:

Nico Salva joins Mahindra
Salva was reportedly on his way to Meralco (which would reunite him with his Ateneo brethren and head coach Norman Black) before Ginebra opted to send him to the Mahindra Floodbusters. Honestly, we still think that this was something of a good fortune to Salva although he went from being able to join a contender to a cellar-dweller. See, the Floodbusters decided to go on a frontline fire sale in the off-season (they lost Aldrech Ramos, Nino Canaleta AND Bradwyn Guinto to trades) which left Coach Chris Gavina scratching his head and looking at: Jeckster Apinan, Mark Yee, Rob Reyes and rookies Russel Escoto and Joseph Eriobu (who is a small forward by trade). If Salva is lucky and works hard enough, he could be of some use as a rotation 3 or 4 although we are not too sure how he'll fare minus a key big man (his best years in ADMU, including his Finals MVP, was brought about by playing the weak side, opposite a dominant big).


Paolo Taha to Ginebra
We don't even need to talk about the two players that Taha was traded for (sorry Denice Villamor and Frank Bonifacio). This kid is a solid two-way player who has enough range to make himself quite useful under Coach Tim Cone's triangle offense as either a two or three. If Taha plays his cards right, he could even be a lock as early as the 2nd conference since we doubt that Coach Tim will be as generous with Ginebra's aging duo of Jayjay Helterbrand and Mark Caguioa's minutes going forward.

Jay Washington for JayR Quinahan
Though their numbers last season are almost identical, there is a huge difference in the way they impact the game overall. Quinahan's offense was a surprise last year, but it's on the defensive end where his true value is really seen. He is a shot blocker/ presence in the middle with good size and speed. On the flip side, Washington is notorious for shying away from contact and skirmishes. If you ask us, while Rain or Shine added some size and athleticism, they lost a bit of that trademark ruggedness. GlobalPort on the other hand, is slowly starting to build quite the team around stars Stanley Pringle and Terrence Romeo.

Ronjay Buenafe joins Blackwater
We hope that Buenafe, a gifted scorer with a wide frame, is able to find a home at BW and shine under Coach Leo Isaac. It is not like they have a bunch of superstar shooting guards to play ahead of Buenafe anyway.

Mick Pennisi for Doug Kramer
An outside-shooting big man for a double-double enforcer. It is easy to say that Phoenix won this trade, but we heard a few things about Kramer that we sincerely hope have been resolved/ addressed. If those "issues" are okay and out of the way, then Phoenix got the kind of muscle that they lacked last season which will help open up the game for scorers: Simon Enciso, Cyrus Baguio and JC Intal (and maybe, even for rookie Matthew Wright). The way GlobalPort's frontline has been assembled with the addition of Quinahan, there is really no need to play Pennisi big minutes.

Dylan Ababou for Frank Golla
TNT Katropa wanted another big man (we don't really buy the whole "they don't have bigs" thing because, uhm, they have Troy Rosario, Moala Tautuaa, Ranidel de Ocampo, Kelly Williams AND Harvey Carey right?) so they opted to send little-used and often-injured Ababou to Blackwater. If you are an Ababou fan like us, being a fellow Thomasian, you would hope that he has recovered from all those injuries and just balls out. 10-15 minutes a game. We don't care if he doesn't look like the Super Dylan, UST King Tiger, we just want him to play like he used to. Golla? He'll learn from the best. But skills-wise, we just don't see him flourishing at TNT (or elsewhere).

Any other names that we missed? Did we get someone (or a few) names wrong? Hit us up @kilikilishot on Twitter!