Alaska’s Uytengsu hits 'Standhardinger' trade
Alaska Aces team owner Wilfred Steven Uytengsu
MANILA, Philippines – The Alaska Milk Aces ball club owner Wilfred Steven Uytengsu was among those who expressed concern on the trade between Kia and San Miguel involving the No. 1 overall draft pick.
"The purpose of the draft is to strengthen the weaker teams. However, what we have seen lately is these weaker teams end up selling their top draft picks because if you look at who is being traded in return, it clearly doesn't make basketball sense for the weaker teams, unless there is other consideration," Uytengsu said.
Under the proposed Kia-SMB trade, the latter will get the former’s top overall pick in Sunday’s PBA Draft that would likely end up to be Fil-German center/forward Christian Standhardinger. The transaction, however, still awaits the approval of PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa.
"There is already a lot of about Kia benefitting financially if this trade were to go through and you have to wonder if they are even making the league minimum salary cap," Uytengsu added.
Another concern Uytengsu expressed was league balance and salary cap compliance.
“If you look at the composition of SMB and Ginebra, you will see they are stacked with first to third picks. Many of those players came to them from curious trades.
"It's difficult to comprehend how a team can fit within the team salary cap, paying those players all at approved maximum PBA salaries while still maintaining a strong sixth through eighth players. I've done the math and it doesn't work," said Uytengsu.
- Latest
- Trending
