How serious are the debutants

(MENAFN- Arab News) UST HOW serious are newcomer teams KIA and Blackwater to be competitive in their first PBA season

The two expansion squads performed their first official functions on Friday night by picking from the Dispersal Draft and leaving the best available talents out in the cold.

Picking first Blackwater tabbed former two-time MVP Danny Ildefonso first overall and KIA which was without head coach Manny Pacquiao made Reil Cervantes the second pick in simple proceedings in front of commissioner Chito Salud and several board representatives.

The process went this way: both teams were asked by the commissioner to come up with a 'wish list' of players they want from the expansion pool and if both list down a common name the players concerned would be picked through a lottery.

The players in the pool are those who were to put it mildly sort of released by their teams. All 10 teams were asked by the commissioner to come up with a list of 12 protected players from the respective lineups with all the other declared available for the dispersal draft.

Unrestricted free agents without live contracts with any of the 10 old teams were also eligible to put their names in the pool. Guys like Cervantes the former Barangay Ginebra big man who has been without a PBA team for the last two years was an unrestricted free agent.

I ask the question of seriousness because Larry Rodriguez the Rain or Shine big man and Ronnie Matias a former Elasto Painter who last played for Grand Slam champion San Mig Coffee were not picked.

They were the best players in their positions no offense to the 37-year-old Ildefonso who has two MVP trophies won consecutively but Rodriguez is a lot younger and has shown in mettle in several wars with Rain or Shine.

It doesn't matter whether Rodriguez or Matias were picked in the second round but the fact of the matter is that the two best players in the Dispersal Pool were left untouched.

They return to their mother teams for the season opening on Oct. 19.

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One on-line report said that Rodriguez and Matias were untouched because of their high salaries and long term contracts.

It is kind of puzzling to read statements like that because maintaining a team in the PBA really doesn't come cheap. And if you leave the best players out in the cold it only means that you are not there to form the best team possible.

Blackwater and KIA I know wouldn't want to buy a championship.

Nobody does.

But what about their fans those who would root for them come hell or high water. If they fall short in several instances in the future won't that action or inaction bite them in the butt

Ildefonso certainly gives Blackwater character a veteran presence that only elite teams have. Asking Danny I to carry this team will certainly be unfair for the former two-time MVP who has had his share of career-threatening injuries in the past.

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Pacquiao failed to attend his first official function as head coach because he was according to sources within the PBA busy attending to wife Jinkee who was reportedly not feeling well after giving birth.

But Pacquiao again managed to get the attention to himself when one KIA man confirmed that he had declared himself available for the coming Rookie Draft on August 24.

This comes to me as another act in which fans can question the seriousness of KIA to put up a decent team. Pacquiao is a world-class athlete a great endorser and the epitome of the little guy who defies all odds to become great in boxing.

With Pacquiao declaring his availability the entire Draft proceedings will lose its credibility in my opinion because according to a report all the other teams picking in the Rookie pool will be asked to leave Pacquiao alone because only KIA will select the eight-division world boxing champion.

Picking in the Draft is a chess match for some of the best coaches in the league. They've shown that in the past and have benefitted in the past.

Some of the coaches pick players who they don't really need to make the guy a trade bait and get the specific player that his team needs.

Pacquiao joining the pool would make a circus of the Draft proceedings and KIA in my opinion will be denying one poor applicant of the chance to try out for a spot in the team because Pacquiao was picked instead of him.

I am not a Pacquiao hater. I love the guy's guts. But like I said before let's leave basketball to those who live eat and breathe the sport. It will take guts to play in the PBA but this is one fight that Pacquiao has little chances of winning.