Giving Jerrick Balanza the opportunity to grow was important to Barangay Ginebra, thus its decision to trade him to NorthPort in a deal that also involved pick swaps for the PBA Rookie Draft on Sunday.
Head coach Tim Cone offered as much on Friday, hours after the league announced the transaction where the Gin Kings sent the incoming sophomore and their 24th pick to the Batang Pier for the no. 13 selection.
“He had a lot of veterans to hurdle in Ginebra, so giving him an opportunity elsewhere was important to us,” he wrote in a text message.
Balanza was the Barangay’s 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft. He was among the ball club’s selections in that deep class, along with forward Arvin Tolentino (10th pick) and combo guard Kent Salado (22nd pick).
The 23-year-old and his fellow rooks were with the Gin Kings in the Philippine Cup bubble in Clark, Pampanga, last year. The league’s most popular franchise ruled the tourney following its conquest of rivals TNT Tropang Giga.
Balanza, though, only saw action for 10 games in his first conference, scoring just a total of 10 points. He found it hard to crack the two-spot rotation that features BPC Stanley Pringle, Jared Dillinger, and Jeff Chan.
Now he gets the chance to prove his with the Batang Pier, where he will reunite with some familiar faces that surely know his game.
Team manager Bonnie Tan and assistant coach Jeff Napa were his coaches in Colegio de San Juan de Letran. Together, they won the NCAA Season 95 championship at the expense of then-reigning three-time champs San Beda Red Lions.
During that title run, supporting Tan from behind the bench was the ‘Super Friends,’ which features the likes of SMC sports director Alfrancis Chua and NorthPort head coach Pido Jarencio.
“We are happy we were able to put Jerrick in a place where he can fight for playing time and develop his game,” Cone expressed.
With this trade, Ginebra has also moved up in the draft. It will now have back-to-back picks, as it also owns the 12th and last pick of the first round.
Players projected to be taken in such a spot are shooters Jerrick Ahanmisi and Joshua Torralba. Cone, however, did not mention anything regarding their plans for the much-anticipated draft proceedings.
“As for the 13th pick, our roster is very full, but we’ll see who drops down to us,” the league’s only 23-time champion coach wrote.
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