Back to Blogging: The PBA Expansion vs PBA D-League

As of yesterday evening, one of the most evenly matched and star-studded Philippine Cup Finals in recent memory is tied at 2-2. The San Miguel Beermen, led by Jay Washington and Arwind Santos, have won games 3 and 4, and look to get that penultimate win on Wednesday. Talk n Text will have to ride the shoulders of Ryan Reyes and Jared Dillinger to gun for the same advantage as well. These two teams were expected to be here, in the finals, tied, and they have not disappointed so far. What is more surprising though is that Olsen Racela and Danny Ildefonso are starting to taste like fine wine once again, and Jimmy Alapag and Jason Castro are seemingly running out of nitro.






With this kind of series, one might say that the PBA is in a pretty good place right now. The product on court has not been disappointing. Even the semifinal series that had Barangay Ginebra and Derby Ace, were also good games that filled up stadiums and made people tune in at home. However, I feel that the PBA still has a problem with their product - especially when we begin looking at the teams at the bottom and the upcoming D-League initiative.



Teams such as Red Bull and Air21, in recent years have been seemingly selling players in lopsided deals. Rumors have it that the cash considerations lumped with trades are being used to simply operate the teams, forgetting about the quality of the team fielded in. While this situation is sad, it is also an undeniable true part of business. Sometimes you have to liquidate your assets to make sure your business survives. This, understandably leads to blow out games against the more financially and talent loaded teams like SMB, TNT, Ginebra, Derby Ace and Alaska.



This downgrade in the quality of games is why I question putting up a D-League in the first place. In the NBA, the D-League was made to keep young, developing talent at home in the US. We, on the other hand, don't have that problem. Our good players aren't being imported (except for the Asean League), so why put them in lesser competition when the top competiton is already lacking in participants. Putting up a D-League would provide more reasons for powerhouses to stockpile talent and weaker teams would once again have to make do with less. The PBA could probably still survive and look like a more competitive league if there were 12 competitive teams playing, not just 8 teams with 2 feeders.



Just to elaborate on the topic, let's take San Miguel Beer as an example. Their depth chart can be seen below:
PG: Cabagnot, Racela, Artadi, Miranda
SG: Hontiveros, Yeo, Salvacion
SF: Santos, Seigle, Tugade
PF: Washington, Ildefonso
C: Pena, Pennisi



Their 4th string PG, Denok Miranda was the starter on the Sta.Lucia team that won the Philippine Cup years ago. If they can afford to keep a starter-quality point guard sitting on the bench, then what's going to stop them from getting good players and hiding them in the D-League for situations such as next year when an older player retires. If the PBA D-League works the same way the NBDL does, they might see sister teams SMB, Ginebra & Derby Ace fielding a team that could be competitive in the PBA itself.



The PBA's games have been struggling for a good quality product when it's not the playoffs. Probably because of the fact that only 2 teams are eliminated at the end of the classification phase. Put 2 more teams in and teams will have to value each game more as more teams can steal spots away from them. Maybe then, we won't have to wait for the playoffs to see good PBA basketball.