Standhardinger-Slaughter trade: Winners and losers

IT was rumored for more than a year, and the talks persisted even when Greg Slaughter left for the US and the entire world was stalled due to the pandemic.

Slaughter was adamant. He did not want to leave Ginebra. The Gins were going to sign him and trade him in a package for Christian Standhardinger. He wasn’t agreeable to that, but ultimately, he had no choice. Nobody wins in a stalemate with Alfrancis Chua, and the rules of the PBA doesn’t help.

Side note: There used to be a “sit-out rule” where a player who refuses a contract offer needs to sit out one year to gain his freedom to sign with another team. That rule is actually unfair. In the real world, if your contract expires, you should be able to take any offer. Now, even that sit-out rule is gone, so Slaughter had no choice but to agree.

Winner: Gin Kings

Ginebra won the bubble championship without Greg Slaughter. People were already slotting them as the favorites when Slaughter re-signed. But now, they will be even better than estimated since Standhardinger is younger and more capable of keeping pace with the faster brand of play anchored on Stanley Pringle.

Now, the Gins will parade Pringle and Standhardinger, two of the best Fil-foreign players in the league. With a powerhouse cast of veterans and rising stars led by Japeth Aguilar, LA Tenorio, Scottie Thompson and Arvin Tolentino, the Kings are likely to end up as title favorites.

Any aspiring contender has to go through the Kings and find a way to defeat this. Grand Slam is definitely an attainable goal for this team.

I was almost led to believe that Northport is graduating from farm status and finally entering team development status. Slaughter does fill a position of need for them, and could fit with Sean Anthony and possible draft prospect Jamie Malonzo.

However, Christian Standhardinger is the best frontline player in the PBA aside from June Mar Fajardo. You cannot be considered a winner when you lose that kind of talent. It should also be noted that the rumors last year had Ginebra adding picks or rookies like Jerrick Balanza to the trade. It was quite surprising that it ended as a one-on-one trade.

Winner: Coach Tim Cone

The winningest coach in the PBA was supposed to unlock the potential of Greg Slaughter by playing the triangle offense. However, that decades-old offensive principle has been outdated by shooting centric offenses.

The PBA has not yet fully abandoned the dominance of the big man, but you can see that Cone has placed the keys in Pringle’s hands. The only challenge for him was how to incorporate Slaughter into their new philosophy. That’s gone now, and he has a Euro-trained center who is also very efficient when he plays off the ball. He also doesn’t have to worry about Japeth Aguilar’s age (34) since he has insurance for the center position.

Loser: Tropang Giga

fast-paced,

TNT Tropang Giga is retooling, eagerly hoping to avenge their loss to Ginebra in the only tournament last season. They even dragged Kelly Williams out of retirement just to contain Japeth Aguilar.

With Standhardinger, Ginebra’s frontline tandem of Aguilar and C-Stan is better than what TNT or any other team can assemble.

Imagine a champion team adding a top 5 player in their fold. The Gins had no contributions from Slaughter and they were good enough to be the best.

Winner: Alfrancis Chua

His situation is as close to having an actual Genie in a Bottle fulfilling your every wish. Standhardinger is worth more than Slaughter. In my opinion, the Gin Kings should even throw in a first-round pick (anyway, it’s probably the 12th pick) in the trade. He got the second-best big man for a nonperforming asset. That’s hard to pull off.

Losers: PBA fans (except Ginebra’s)

Remember when the NBA got boring when Kevin Durant joined Golden State since we all knew they would be champions? Here we are now.