By REYNALD MAGALLON
Prolific guards Terrence Romeo and Juami Tiongson are swapping places ahead of the opening of the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup as the league trade committee approved a deal between San Miguel and Terrafirma on Monday, Nov. 25.
The Beermen acquired the services of Tiongson alongside forward Andreas Cahilig by sending Romeo and Vic Manuel to the Dyip who entered yet another rebuilding phase after breaking up a solid core that brought the franchise to its first Philippine Cup quarterfinals appearance last season.
With the move, San Miguel has added a potent scorer in Tiongson, who, for the past few seasons, has emerged as Terrafirma’s main gun. Cahilig, meanwhile, could provide the versatility and outside shooting at the forward spot which should help create space for June Mar Fajardo to operate inside.
Tiongson also gets the chance to rekindle his old partnership with CJ Perez, who was his backcourt partner with Dyip for two years before the latter was sent to SMB via trade in 2021.
Meanwhile, reduced as backup at San Miguel, Romeo, who won three PBA titles with the Beermen, is expected to get his minutes back at Terrafirma as he gets reunited with Stanley Pringle.
The Pringle and Romeo tandem once took the league by storm when they were both still playing with NorthPort before they went separate ways with the former getting traded to Barangay Ginebra and the latter sent to TNT back in 2019.
Romeo will also be playing once more with Christian Standhardinger who he played with in their stints with San Miguel and Gilas Pilipinas.
With the departure of Tiongson, the task to carry the cudgels for the Dyip now falls mostly on the shoulders of Standhardinger and Pringle.
