TEAMS in the Philippine Basketball Association continued to tweak their respective rosters through trades.
Following the annual Draft last Sunday, which saw the PBA squads enhance their respective rosters with young players coming in, the carousel continues to move as several more movements were finalized.
Star, which has a surplus of talent in its crowded backcourt, shipped Alex Mallari to Mahindra in exchange for a much needed forward in Aldrech Ramos.
This swap will give the Hotshots more ceiling with the versatile Ramos while in return, the Floodbuster will have a steady combo guard in Mallari, who saw his playing minutes go down this past season.
As if that’s not enough, Mahindra also completed another deal. It will now have veteran Ryan Arana in its fold. San Miguel dealt Arana in exchange for promising Keith Agovida.
Even with this move, Star still has a handful of prolific guards in the fold in recently acquired Paul Lee, Mark Barroca, RR Garcia, Peter June Simon, Justin Melton and top draft pick Jio Jalalon.
The Hotshots management has been vocal about possibly making more moves to balance out the team’s composition.
In another quiet move, Governors’ Cup finalists Barangay Ginebra and Meralco also made a transaction of their own.
The Gin Kings, perhaps making a room for top-notch draft pick Kevin Ferrer, parted ways with seldom-used forward Nico Salva and sent him to the Bolts for future draft picks.
Prior to that, Meralco also made a slick move by acquiring veteran shooting guard Joseph Yeo from GlobalPort for athletic forward Rey Guevarra in a straight swap.