By REYNALD MAGALLON
The trade centered on rising star Calvin Oftana along with Gilas stalwart Troy Rosario and 2022 first round pick Brandon Ganuelas Rosser finally got the approval of the PBA trade committee on Monday, Sept. 19.
Under the approved trade, NLEX shipped Oftana along with big man Raoul Soyud to Blackwater in exchange for Ganuelas Rosser and two future second round picks. In the initial version of the proposal, the picks were supposedly Bossing wingman Paul Desiderio before the trade committee decided to tweak the trade.
Oftana and Soyud were then dealt by Blackwater to TNT for Rosario and another wingman Gab Banal.
With the addition of Oftana, the Tropang Giga had injected some youth to its lineup and another potent scoring option to compliment an already explosive backcourt rotation of Jayson Castro, RR Pogoy and Mikey Williams.
TNT also added an extra wide body to man the paint with the acquisition of Soyud especially that the team’s frontcourt rotation appeared to be the Tropang Giga’s waterloo in their Philippine Cup Finals series against San Miguel Beer.
The breath of new environment, meanwhile, could be what Rosario needed to regain his scoring touch after a subpar performance all-conference long in the All-Filipino Cup. The many time national team member could be the stretch big man who could provide the inside-outside threat for the Bossing who are looking to improve its eighth place finish last conference.
For the Road Warriors, while they dealt a promising player in Oftana, they also acquired a quality big man in Rosser who could be the cornerstone of their possible rebuild along with young gun Matt Nieto and veterans Kevin Alas, JR Quinahan and Don Trollano following the departure of former head coach Yeng Guiao and star guard Kiefer Ravena.
