The big man rules
Credit to Author: Michael Angelo B. Asis| Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2020 16:10:18 +0000
When something is rare, it becomes valuable. When the demand is higher than the supply, you are a hot commodity.
Such are the big men in the PBA. Not all teams have them. In contrast, most teams have a plethora of speedy guards. They are almost interchangeable — trade your guard for another, and most likely, there won’t be too many changes in your game plan.
Not so with a big man. Meralco traded for a big man (Raymond Almazan) to finally get over the hump that is Ginebra in the Governor’s Cup. They had a fair chance, with a tight first game and they won the second. The tides changed when Almazan got injured.
Ginebra won the next three games and romped away with the title. Almost every title winner had a big man. The last champion who did not have a top big man was the 2015 Commissioner’s Cup TNT (then known as Talk N’ Text). But they had Ranidel de Ocampo back then.
Also, teams without big men have better chances in the Commissioner’s Cup since the import takes that role. The TNT KaTropa almost beat the San Miguel Beermen last year with Terrence Jones.
Trades that shaped the league
It was almost criminal that Blackwater had JP Erram, who didn’t see much playing time in Ateneo, playing behind Greg Slaughter, among others. He suddenly emerged as a double-double beast in the PBA.
NLEX gobbled him up as part of the efforts to build up the third MVP team. This is one among the lopsided trades that shaped the league, and one of them was the Christian Standhardinger trade.
When it comes to player empowerment, height and talent rule. San Miguel Beer was not a juggernaut until they finally landed June Mar Fajardo. Ginebra got Slaughter and Ian Sangalang went no.2 a year after. All three SMC teams got their big men.
SMB got Standhardinger, which, if we believe the rumors, was also courted by TNT. He is probably the best big man right now, after JMF. Proof of that is his Best Player of the Conference win, in the first conference he left the shadow of the Kraken.
TNT is the only team of the SMC-MVP groups that doesn’t have this commodity, and they likely won’t take that sitting down.
Trades of the future
Who are the big men on the pipeline? Not too many. Prospective top picks next year are Kobe Paras, Thirdy Ravena and Jamie Malonzo. There are some legit big men, but none are projected to be part of the very exclusive top big man list.
The point is, the value of these big men are not likely to devaluate in the immediate future.
Recently, Gilas had to make adjustments — adding Justin Chua of Phoenix and Abu Tratter of Alaska to their pool. This was after they couldn’t land a big man: no Fajardo, Slaughter, Standhardinger, Aguilar, Erram, Almazan or Sangalang.
How the national team performs will also be an indicator of the big man value. If they struggle, or even lose to ASEAN teams because of the absence of big men, then it will only reinforce the notion that we need a big man.
Pending contracts
Ray Parks has yet to re-sign with TNT, which is quite puzzling. TNT will not hold back in salary, which means it is Parks who is making a request.
Parks could be the key for TNT to acquire a big man, and it seems like Slaughter would have been the ideal partner. But Slaughter, apparently, doesn’t want to leave Ginebra.
Is Parks requesting a trade? That could be the clincher—he may tell TNT that he will only sign if they trade him. TNT would rather acquiesce to the demand and get something for Parks, rather than have him as a dormant asset—like what Slaughter is to Ginebra.
The Big men make the rules, and they worth their height in gold in the PBA, and Philippine basketball in general since we are still height-obsessed.
Until teams without a big man break through, we will still equate height with success. Unfortunately, height is not something we can develop.