Finally, some non-Japeth Aguilar PBA news: Sta. Lucia made trades over the last couple of days to dump salary, shipping off point guard Denok Miranda to San Miguel yesterday, before sending their team captain Dennis Espino to the Coca-Cola Tigers. The Realtors received draft picks from both transactions, with back-up big man Jason Misolas also coming on-board from the Tigers. I’ve also heard rumors that Bitoy Omolon will be traded next.

It’s no secret that the corporation behind the team has been affected by the economic downturn. The real estate sector, in particular, has been hard-hit by the financial crisis especially because of the credit crunch. Last year, the corporation underwent corporate restructuring and reported a loss of P74.6-million from January to September, mostly due to operational costs and taxes.

While I hate teams trading off players for nothing, I have to say that Sta. Lucia so far is going about their salary reduction very smartly. They replaced Miranda with underrated (and cheaper) guys like Chris Pacana and Josh Urbiztondo. The loss of Espino shouldn’t hurt that much either, since he splits minutes with Marlou Aquino; when you’re belt-tightening, there’s really no good reason to pay both of your centers max money. Omolon’s exit, meanwhile, should be mitigated by the arrival of Gabby Espinas. They also smartly traded their assets for future picks, so that should help.

The best thing about their moves so far is that they didn’t touch their core of Kelly Williams, Ryan Reyes, and Joseph Yeo, or at least not yet. I’m a big fan of Coach Boyet Fernandez, and if Williams and Reyes come back healthy (big ifs), I couldn’t see how they can’t still remain competitive.

Hopefully, though, the Sta. Lucia downturn is only temporary. They’ve never been the richest of teams, but they always did right by players – remember how the team shouldered Kelly Williams’ medical expenses and signed him to a new max deal despite his sickness? The company reported that they ended the first half of 2009 in the black, with net income of P5.29-million compared to P85.02-million in losses in the same period last year.

UPDATE: Going by Rey Joble's latest report on the Sta. Lucia situation, it looks like Bitoy Omolon will not be traded... yet. This is great news for Realtors fans, as Rafe Bartholomew pointed out in a couple of tweets: "Omolon is really key to Boyet's man-to-man pressure. Espinas is similarly long and athletic, but he doesn't seem aggressive. When SLR looks good, it's often because Bitoy is making things happen."

Powerade Team Pilipinas stalwarts Jared Dillinger, Gabe Norwood, Asi Taulava, Jayjay Helterbrand, Japeth Aguilar, and Ryan Reyes hit the streets of Beijing shortly after the Fiba-Asia Championships and sampled some of the exotic local food. Dillinger and Norwood are both providing updates on Twitter, along with other PBA players Kelly Williams and his brother-in-law Lamont Waters.

The Jordanian national team wiped the floor of Taipei’s Hsinchuang gymnasium with the Powerade Team Pilipinas yesterday, 90-59, as hostilities opened in the 31st Jones Cup. And yes, the 31-point drubbing was every bit as awful as it sounds – the only reason I watched the game all the way through is because I’m a masochist who commits to watching even the ugliest blowouts. Yeng Guiao certainly has his work cut out for him.

The sky is not (yet) falling, however, and we ought to take this loss with a grain of salt. Or maybe take two grains, for good measure. Consider:

• The players are terribly out of game shape. Most of the players are coming off long layoff. In fact, a few weeks ago, the team scrimmaged against an American team and only six guys were available to play, with the rest either playing in the PBA finals or on vacation. Some guys only joined the team again this week. These weren’t our players at their best.


• This team hasn’t had much chance to play together. This is the first PBA-backed national team since the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games that did not have the opportunity to play together full-time, and that team was made up, at its core, of players from San Miguel and Purefoods (with Johnny Abarrientos as a late addition). Between the lack of time together and their shape, this is pretty much day one of training camp for the team. They’re supposed to be terrible.


• We’ve never played well against Jordan. Not only was this the team’s first game against high-level international competition, but Jordan has had our number. In the lead-up for its stint for the Fiba-Asia championship, the Chot Reyes-coached national team played Middle Eastern powerhouse teams Lebanon, Jordan, and eventual Fiba-Asia champion Iran. Guess which team our boys never beat? Yep, it was Jordan, who also eliminated us in the first round of the Fiba-Asia championships. Jordan’s size at all positions is a matchup nightmare for us.


• Injuries have decimated the team. Guiao picked three point guards for the team: Ryan Reyes, Jayjay Helterbrand, and Willie Miller. In the team’s early tuneup games, Reyes was obviously the best fit with his ballhawking defense and open-court brilliance, Helterbrand shot well and played quality minutes, while Miller was decidedly the worst. Unfortunately, both Reyes and Helterbrand went out with hamstring injuries.
  
  The team also suffered major blow when Kelly Williams, the team’s most athletic defender, suffered a rare blood disorder, cutting short his season and thrusting Jared Dillinger into his spot. The difference between Williams and Dillinger is like the difference between Sloan and Eric’s wet blanket girlfriend from Entourage.

Speaking of which, aren’t you all glad Sloan is back in our lives? The smoking hot Emmanuelle Chriqui, after the jump.

The site got some nice words over the weekend from Rafe Bartholomew, a former Fulbright scholar who spent several years in the Philippines to study and write about Philippine basketball. He gained a measure of fame in the local scene after writing a couple of stories for the New York Times, first about the Ateneo-La Salle rivalry, and then about Gilbert Arenas' crazy Manila visit last year.

But his best (published) work so far involved the Philippine Basketball Association, particularly its transplants. He had an entertaining article in Slate about the height limit that the league imposes for imports, a short profile on Sta. Lucia superstar Kelly Williams' roots in the Detroit Free Press, and a pair of absolute must-reads on two PBA imports: Red Bull's Quemont Greer in the Chicago Reader, which took an inside look at the life of a budding mercenary basketball player, and Rosell Ellis in the Seattle Weekly, which examined the dynamics between the import and the local team. The Ellis piece was particularly awesome because Alaska gave him crazy access for the story. These are some of the best writing ever done about Philippine sports, ever.

He hasn't been writing much lately, save for this profile about the insane world of Krypto-Nate, NBA Slam Dunk Champion Nate Robinson. He's probably wrapping up work on his book, which should be a must-read for any Pinoy sports fan.

About the only bad thing you can say about the guy is that he's a much, much, much worse actor than Manny Pacquiao and Alvin Patrimonio. After the jump, watch a clip of him acting opposite Sunshine Dizon from GMA-7's Bakekang:

The classification phase of the PBA Fiesta Conference ended last night with two tiebreaker games: the Coca-Cola Tigers beat the Alaska Aces, 81-74 to gain 8th, while the Barangay Ginebra Kings beat the living crap out of the Rain or Shine Elastopainters, 114-71, to get the 2nd seed.

The tiebreakers were important because the 2nd seed gains an automatic spot in the semifinals, while the 3rd seed has to qualify in the wildcards. The 8th place is also a much better spot than the 9th, which comes with a twice-to-win disadvantage against the 4th seed. The bracket below clears things up a little:



After the jump, my playoff predictions and my pick to win the championship.