July 15 ------ CHRISTIAN Standhardinger and Stanley Pringle are headed to a new home. The Mutt and Jeff duo of Barangay Ginebra were sent to Terrafirma for young gun Isaac Go and leading Rookie of the Year contender Stephen Holt in a mega-trade that shook the PBA a day before the Season 49 Draft.
Pringle was the No. 1 overall pick of NorthPort in the 2014 draft, while Standhardinger was also a former No. 1 pick of San Miguel, who then played one of his best seasons with the Batang Pier in 2019 when he led the team to its last semifinals stint during the season-ending Governors Cup. Under the deal, the two teams also swapped first-round picks in Sunday's draft. Terrafirma was originally picking No. 3 behind Converge and Blackwater, while Ginebra was at No. 10. Sources said Ginebra first negotiated with NorthPort about the trade involving Standhardinger and Pringle.
The trade marks a new turn for Ginebra, which had considerable success with both Pringle and Standhardinger, who gave consensus season MVP June Mar Fajardo a fight for the league's highest individual award last season. The 6-foot-8 Fil-German is actually also in strong contention for the Season 48 MVP trophy along with Fajardo and San Miguel's CJ Perez. But with the trade, Ginebra not only got significantly younger, but also gets one of the first cracks at a deep and talented draft pool at Glorietta on Sunday.
Pringle is 37 and Standhardinger 35, with a lot of mileage in their bodies. Go is 28 while Holt was a 32-year old rookie last season. On the other hand, Terrafirma made the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history in the Philippine Cup, but now has lost three of the players in that breakthrough run in Go, Holt and Javi Gomez de Liano, who left to sign with a Korea Basketball League team at the end of the season.
In Holt, Ginebra gets a player to take over playmaking chores with Scottie Thompson out injured and LA Tenorio already preparing to shift to a coaching role at age 40. Go had one of his best seasons since being drafted by Terrafirma in 2019 as part of the special Gilas Pilipinas draft. Holt had long been rumored to be bound for the Kings especially after a scintillating first season with the Dyip whom he carried to the playoffs for the first time in eight years. Go also had his breakout season for the franchise last year, although initially there were talks he’ll be traded to San Miguel as a young backup to seven-time MVP Fajardo.
Ginebra obviously made the move after bombing out in the last Philippine Cup where it was booted out by eventual champion Meralco in the semifinals which went the full seven-game route.
Source: spin.ph
Comments