PBA Draft: Converge playing coy?

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THIS is a no-brainer, unless Converge comes up with a big surprise.

While 6-foot-9 center Justine Baltazar is projected by armchair pundits to emerge as the No. 1 pick overall in the annual PBA Draft this Sunday, July 14, at the Glorietta 4 Activity Center in Makati, FiberXers coach Aldin Ayo said they are still weighing their options.

“Nag-de-desisyon pa kami. Pinag-uusapan namin nila boss Jacob (Lao, team manager) kung sino but probably we’re going to look for a player who’s versatile enough na makakapuno doon sa kulang namin especially sa depensa,” Ayo said. “Butas namin talaga kulang kami sa malaki and at the same time firepower.

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“Kulang din kami sa offense so kung sino man iyon (mapili namin) iyon iyong dedesisyunan ng management and the coaching staff,” he added.

Ayo admitted the late applications of those initially not expected to join the proceedings gave the event some sort of unpredictability.

“One month before the deadline akala natin boring iyong Draft and after a week, in the last week of application, all of sudden everything became interesting because of iyong mga humabol na mga magagaling na mga players,” Ayo said.

“Akala nga natin hindi malalim pero noong dumating na sila (Sedrick) Barefield and (Jonnel) Policarpio iyong mga unexpected, biglang naging malalim iyong pool.”

Baltazar, 27, initially applied for the Draft in 2022 but pulled out at the last minute and instead signed with the Hiroshima Dragonflies in the Japan B.League.

He and Ayo won a UAAP title with the Green Archers in the UAAP in 2016.

Another former La Salle standout in spitfire guard Mark Nonoy showed the way in the two-day Combine at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.

Nonoy, who was officially measured at 5-foot-9, was a standout in two skills test categories — the 3/4 sprint test and the running vertical jump.

Also a former University of Santo Tomas playmaker, Nonoy topped the sprint test, clocking 2.862 seconds. He also did the same in the running vertical jump by leaping 53 inches.

A pair of wingmen and a hulking center also did well for a share of the spotlight with Nonoy during the event co-presented by Arena Plus and Daily Fantasy.

Brandon Ramirez, a 6-foot-4 former PBA 3×3 player, was the fastest in the reaction test with 358 milliseconds, while 6-foot-2 MJ Malonzo of National University and former Green Archer DJ Mitchell stood out in the standing vertical jump and lane agility test, respectively.

Malonzo clocked 11.49 seconds and Mitchell jumped to a height of 43 inches.

Of the 62 applicants who showed up for the first of the two-day event that wound up yesterday, Baltazar stood the tallest with a measured height of 6-foot-6 7/5 inches followed by Kai Ballungay at 6-foot-6 2/5 inches, while the player with the longest wingspan of 81.5 was Ronan Mendoza Santos.

Although Ayo is seemingly playing it coy, a talent and a cager of a caliber of Baltazar is just a can’t miss. — With Abby Toralba

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