UPDATED!
The Billy Mamaril-Dave Marcelo trade was just a small fraction of what turned out to be a four-team, six-player swap Monday involving Ginebra, San Miguel, Globalport, and Barako Bull as the squads switched big men.
For the recap, here are the players each team will be receiving:
Barako Bull – Rico Maierhofer
Barangay Ginebra – Dave Marcelo
GlobalPort – Doug Kramer, Billy Mamaril
San Miguel – Gabby Espinas, Yancy De Ocampo
Quick takeaways:
The Beermen might be doing this because they are in a win-now mode. Only four teams are allowed to field imports without height restrictions and having Yancy De Ocampo in the fold gives San Miguel an extra big man. They sacrificed strength after giving away Kramer, but got length in return. De Ocampo will get to help June Mar Fajardo manage his minutes too. They also got Espinas, who can provide defense and give Arwind Santos a breather. Don’t forget, they still have Jay-R Reyes in the fold to provide more frontcourt depth.
Ginebra is also a winner in this deal. They gave away Mamaril and landed Marcelo who is an absolute workhorse on both ends of the floor. He can push bigs out of the paint on offense and also work around underneath for baskets.
The Energy got a minor upgrade in Maierhofer. They previously had Mamaril but dealt him to the Beermen for the lanky ex-La Salle forward. Maierhofer has been with the Energy two seasons ago. With Maierhofer, the Energy gets an athletic guy who can get boards and defend forwards. He will be strong and quick enough to defend both prototypical power forwards and stretch fours in the league.
Kramer returns to Globalport. When he was with this team (Powerade franchise), he was a starting center, led the league in double-doubles and went all the way to the finals. But he isn’t that guy anymore. Nevertheless, the Batang Pier gets a bullstrong big man. But they had Espinas whom they acquired from the Alaska Aces recently for Nonoy Baclao. So…
Team Grades
Barako Bull: B
Rico Maierhofer gives the Energy an added edge up front although he isn’t an offensive force. Still a better player than Mamaril overall.
Ginebra: A
Dave Marcelo. Asset. Additional support for the Kings’ frontliners. Knows Frankie Lim’s system.
San Miguel: B+
Gabby. Freaking. Espinas. That frontcourt just got a lot deeper for the reigning Philippine Cup champions.
Globalport: B-
Kramer is good, but overall, what are you guys doing?
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