84 names filed their applications for the upcoming PBA draft (of course, the league will whittle that down after vetting the list).
Time to figure out who these are, based on how I remember them / after some minimal research.
Part I - The Bigs
Centers.
The pool had seven players listed as Centers. You definitely know five of them. If you are a basketball nut, you'd recall the sixth. And then there's John Usita.
It is expected that the top 3 players of this upcoming draft will be Ian Sangalang, Raymond Almazan and Greg Slaughter, in some order. Ateneans know the importance of Justin Chua during their dynastic run, something Blackwater fans would understand. JP Erram once was thought to be Nonoy Baclao's replacement when he started to wear the Blue & White. He might possibly just take away Baclao's spot on a pro roster as well.
Holstein is 6'9", but also raw, because if he's good, we would talking about him along the lines of the above four guys who have had D-League experience (EA Regen's Almazan and Sangalang, NLEX's Slaughter & Blackwater's Chua).
And then there is Usita. 6'8" and 255. He once was listed as 275 a couple of years ago. If I am correct, Matthew Manotoc somehow found him in Hawai'i. He's also the second-oldest player in this draft (at 28), so he has to be a sure thing to be relevant. He's said to a banger and a low-post player.
Centers / Forwards.
Aside from the players above, there are four more C-F bigs available, with most seasoned by D-League duty. Mark Bringas has the big body to bang around, Mike Parala and Jaymo Eguilos can rebound. As for Vince Tinte, he probably got tired of waiting to be elevated to Team A. Guy needs to play in D-League for seasoning.
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