KKS Trade Reaction: STAR Reloaded

Garcia the STAR
(Photo credit: Interaksyon.com)

Once there was a wide-eyed young man named Jason who was given a champion car by his parents, who were both established champion racers. At the prodding of his parents, Jason quickly signed up for a race with the same car only to find himself falling short-- again and again.

That was when Jason realized that it might not be as easy as inheriting a simple champion car. That maybe, the driver needs to be up to that level as well.

Which brings us to the STAR Hotshots.

If you are a STAR fan who had to endure two conferences worth of abysmal coaching and subpar play, then please allow us to congratulate you. Your team was supposed to suck for a few more years owing to the title romp you enjoyed under the Tim Cone (and Joe DeVance) era. That was supposed to be the tradeoff for all those championshipsssss. But well, head Coach Jason Webb just found himself a few more "championship" pieces, young ones at that, to hopefully get back in the title race.

Trade reaction: Jervy Cruz to Ginebra

Third team after RoS
--all in one conference!
(Photo credit to the owner)

First thing is first, who is really in control?

Is it Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, plucked from right under the noses of STAR Hotshots' management to right all things wrong with the league's most popular ballclub? Or is it team manager slash San Miguel Sports Director slash "I can get you banned indefinitely by the league" slash whatever he is into these days Alfrancis Chua?

Because from where we are seated, trading Rodney Brondial and a future pick for Barako Bull Energy Cola's Jervy Cruz does not look like much of a Tim Cone move.

Brondial is 24 years of age and a true 6"5, 210 lbs. banger who loves to gobble up rebounds be it on the offensive or defensive end. On the other side, Cruz is a 29-year-old former UAAP MVP who has struggled to find a niche in the pros and generously listed at 6"5 (more 6"3-6"4) and 220 lbs. If you take Cruz' offense (and collegiate accomplishments), then sure, he's the better player. But we doubt that he was brought in for his low post moves, since Ginebra is clearly dead set on running every single play through starters 6"9 Japeth Aguilar and 7"0 Greg Slaughter.

But Brondial has a lot of upside to him, despite playing limited minutes for Ginebra his entire time there.

2014 PBA Draft 1st Round Rookie Report Card (Part 2)

Born Ready: Kevin Alas
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

On part 2 of our Rookie Report Card, we take a closer look at the Top 5 picks of the 2014 PBA Draft, where they are and where they want/ need to be. Is the race for this season's PBA Rookie of the Year really over? Or are we being led astray because of the discrepancy in minutes per game, the number of touches and other factors?

All statistics gathered from pba-online.net, because pba.inquirer.net doesn't carry the full stats (only the leaders) which is depressing really in this day and age. (Come on guys, you have ONE job.)

5. Chris Banchero, PG, Alaska - B+
18.44mpg 6.11ppg 2.89rpg 1.89apg
Banchero is slowly coming into his own as a PBA player and could arguably be the best, traditional point guard of the whole 2014 PBA Draft class. His size allows for the Aces to play him at SG (even SF) at times with the more offensively-gifted yet forced to share the wealth JVee Casio. Defensively, Banchero has shown tendencies of being a hard-nosed runt despite his White Collar Neil Caffrey, 50 Shades of Grey worthy looks which has obviously won the hearts of his more blue collar teammates Calvin Abueva et. al. At the moment, Banchero's mature game and court vision reminds me a lot of the Lakers era Derek Fisher, maybe minus the lefty three point bombing.

2014 PBA Draft 1st Round Rookie Report Card (Part 1)

And your 2014 PBA Rookie of the Year is...
(Photo courtesy of Sports 5)

With the PBA Philippine Cup elimination round near its end (and some teams already, clearly, out of contention) Kilikilishot.blogspot.com pays the 1st round picks of the 2014 PBA Draft a nice visit stats-wise to see how well they're doing so far. While some people are already proclaiming number one pick Stanley Pringle of the GlobalPort Batang Pier as the runaway winner for the prestigious PBA Rookie of the Year, we feel that he still has some legitimate competition in what is proving to be a rather deep and serviceable first round.

But before we proceed, we cannot help but give a special shout out to BlackWater Elite's Brian Heruela, formerly known as the DLSU Mike Cortez to the reigning PBA MVP Junemar Fajardo's Don Allado over at the University of Cebu. Picked in the 3rd round (!), Heruela has fought for his spot on the Elite's rotation and is now averaging a sweet 25.50mpg 9.25ppg 4.75rpg 5apg which is pretty solid for an unheralded rookie point guard. We're calling it right now, he's our sleeper pick to be either a breakout star for the Elite OR traded to whichever money franchise is looking for a backup point guard.

Now on to the first round picks:

12. Juami Tiongson, PG, Blackwater - C
12.22mpg 4.11ppg 1.33rpg 0.78apg
Here's an honest question: if Tiongson didn't play for Ateneo in the UAAP and won all those titles, would you pick him 12th overall when there's still talent like Rome dela Rosa, Harold Arboleda and even teammate and above mentioned Heruela around? We're not hating on Tiongson (what's there to hate? Dude seems like a stand-up guy), but there's a reason why he went from playing 19 minutes his first game, and 5 his last (against Talk'n'Text). He's not the same firebrand of a scorer as peer Eman Monfort, he's not a specialist on the defensive end either. He's solid, but there are a lot of areas that he can improve on if he is to have a meaningful PBA career.