Hontiveros always got the job done at the SG position. They got Fonacier to help but traded him to Alaska. They also got Tugade but they got him already injured and had to wait for him to get better. Unfortunately Tugade has yet to recover the form he showed when he played for Red Bull under Guiao.
Yeo really is a big disappointment. Bonbon Custodio played better and contributed more when he was still with San Miguel.
Lutz will continue to be overworked until Hontiveros comes back.
Grundy was a very big factor in Petron's winning last conference's Championship series. Duncil may have contributed a little bit of everything, toughness, some points, hustle, rebounds, steals but all the remaining Petron players contributed the same things. Pennisi, Salvacion, Hubalde, Guevarra, and Baclao contributed too. But what really helped was the rejuvenated play of Ildefonso, the unexpected offense from Miranda, and the consistent play of Santos and Cabagnot.
Arwind Santos still plays the same way. The only difference now is that he is either the first or second option in their offense. With Washington around, Santos is usually relegated to the second or third option.
Trades are inevitable. Teams would like to get better players. The Commissioner's office tries to make the deals fair, at least, that is what it says.
Talk n Text also benefited from lopsided deals. They got Kelly Williams and Ryan Reyes and Japeth Aguilar too from questionable deals. And now they have the most powerful and aggressive team, if not the best team in the PBA.
Yup, TnT did also benefit from lopsided deals ..... however, it was through a different route - Kelly Williams & Ryan Reyes were acquired as part of MVP's purchasing the old SANTA LUCIA franchise (for their new team MERALCO).
MVP and SLR's Buddy Encarnado further justified the deal by committing both Williams & Reyes to the GILAS squad - which they actually did, albeit a conference late (Toroman eventually passed on Reyes since he already had Lutz, Lassiter, etc).
As for Japeth Aguilar, I give a pass on TnT for this - since it was clear that most was Aguilar's fault ....... he signed on to the draft & was picked 1st overall. A few days after the draft, he announced that he wont sign with BURGER KING, choosing to go to GILAS instead.
MVP proposed a compromise and traded for Aguilar ...... which they eventually did, then gave him to GILAS for a full 2 years.
Trades are indeed inevitable, however the kind of trades that SMC makes with Bert Lina's pimp teams (also with George Chua's old RED BULL team) defies all sense of inegrity and fair play. Right of the bat (there are some more which I'll refrain from posting ... re: long post)
** BERT LINA trading Arwind Santos (BPC & MVP runner-up, 3-time defensive team) to SMB for Marc Pingris & Ken Bono ..... Pingris was "magically" transferred to PUREFOODS a day later, while Ken Bono was never signed.
** BERT LINA's team made history when they got the 1st 3-picks for the 2010 draft. I cant recall any other team in any pro-sport anywhere, getting the 1st 3-picks for any draft.
After a single conference, they "traded" away these 3-picks (Al-Hussaini, Baclao & Guevarra) to SMB for Pena, Seigle, Artadi & Hontiveros.
This trade absolutely destroyed the essence of a professional draft - giving first dibs to the last finishers, so they can rebuild by the drafting the best young talent available.
** BERT LINA's team trading away the 2011 3rd overall pick to SMB ...... for SMB's 2011 8th overall pick & 2014 1st round pick.
This years draft was the most top-heavy draft in recent memory ....... how can one team trade away a surefire 3rd pick (which turned out to be Chris Lutz) for a gamble on the 8th pick??
By the way, BERT LINA also included their best SG (Hontiveros) & then best bigman (Sharma) in the deal ..... for the rights to Salvacion & Pennisi.
They also mysteriously relegated their best PG (Urbiztondo) to the unrestricted list ..... a few days later, he was in a a BMEG uniform.
** BERT LINA's team trading away JR Reyes to ALASKA for Joe Devance ...... lopsided since Devance was then the seasons stats leader - however it was a deal that needs to be done since Devance wanted out of ALASKA (despite already receiving the max salary).
About a week later, Devance was "traded" to BMEG ..... for the rights to Salvador & Canaleta (who was eventually "traded" to GINEBRA).
The funny thing about all of this is, Commisioner's commitment to "making all trades fair" ....... why does the Commissioner's office have to watch over trades to begin with ?
Arent trades governed by the usual rules e.g. salaries of tradees must come within a certain %, tradees must both be medically cleared, etc.
Methinks (as does every true follower of the sport) it's because the Commisioner knows that hocus-pocus trades are indeed happening all the time ....... he just needs to
"regulate the greed". Apologies for the long post ...... no alternative but the PBA, due to this damm NBA lockout.