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Barangay Ginebra’s head coach Tim Cone couldn’t hide his excitement over the major acquisition of talented sophomore forward Jamie Malonzo by Barangay Ginebra through a three-team trade that was approved by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) on the eve of the beginning of the Commissioner’s Cup.
“Jamie is a young man who is athletic, tall, and explosive. What’s not to appreciate about it?” Cone stated those words on Tuesday, a few hours after the trade committee of the league had given its approval to the move that allowed Ginebra to acquire Malonzo from NorthPort.
Cone has great hopes that Malonzo, who is 26 years old, would be a long-term staple for Ginebra as it seeks championships, beginning with the mid-season tournament that will begin on Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena. Cone is looking forward to the tournament.
The Bay Area Dragons from Hong Kong, who are participating as a guest team in the second conference, will play Blackwater at 3 p.m. Then, in the nightcap at 5:45 p.m., Malonzo’s former squad, NorthPort, will play Phoenix.
Malonzo is going to have his first game with Ginebra on Sunday against Converge, and everyone is expecting him to make an immediate impression in front of the team’s legion of admirers.
Cone proceeded by saying, “He’s a player we can build around over the next few years.” “We had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to obtain him. a promising young player, a big shooter, and our first-round draft pick, all rolled into one package. It was not a cheap acquisition.”
To the Kings, Pessumal
In order to finalize the deal, Ginebra had to part ways with four role players; NorthPort received third-year forward Arvin Tolentino, backup big Prince Caperal, experienced shooter Jeff Chan, and teenage guard Kent Salado. Kent Salado was also part of the trade.
NorthPort also received Ginebra’s first round choice in the Rookie Draft for the following season as part of the trade.
But Ginebra was also successful in acquiring shooting guard Von Pessumal, who had been playing for San Miguel for the past five years but saw very little playing time as a result of the deep and illustrious roster of the team that won the Philippine Cup. Ginebra’s roster is now considered to be among the best in the league.
As a result of the trade, San Miguel was awarded two draft picks for the second round in the years 2024 and 2025.
Opportunity – Jamie Malonzo
Pessumal, who is capable of sinking three-point shots when the occasion presents itself, is the subject of Cone’s comments, in which he revealed that he has plans for the player. In June of 2019, the former mainstay of Ateneo made all eight three-point shots in a game against TNT at Ynares Center in Antipolo City to create a new record for the Philippine Basketball Association.
Von “has been caught behind the great Marcio Lassiter for the last few years and hasn’t been able to carve out a consistent role and playing time with San Miguel,” stated Cone. “Von hasn’t been able to carve out a consistent role and playing time with San Miguel.”
“We are going to offer him the opportunity to carve out a role with us here, and we will see where it leads him from there.” There are instances when players simply require a change of environment. We’ll have to watch and see if that remains true for Von.”
The move is the most recent one involving Ginebra and NorthPort, which have previously been involved in high-profile transactions such as the trade that sent Stanley Pringle to the Gin Kings in 2019 and the trade that switched Christian Standhardinger and Greg Slaughter in 2021.
In the meantime, everyone will be keeping a close eye on Bay Area as they try to build on their recent success of winning all nine exhibition games against PBA and collegiate squads, including three victories against Blackwater.
The Bay Area will display Myles Powell as an import, which is a player who Blackwater coach Ariel Vanguardia views as a significant conundrum.
He referred to the individual as a “mismatch problem.” It is necessary for us to defend as a team.
Troy Rosario, who was acquired by Blackwater from TNT in a three-team transaction that also included NLEX, is a game-time decision for the squad because he has only been off the court for a little over two weeks after playing for the Tropang Giga in the Philippine Cup Finals.
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