Point/counterpoint: Should the NLEX Road Warriors jump to the PBA?

Two companies, KIA and Blackwater, have submitted their letters of intent to put up PBA franchises. Will NLEX, under the umbrella of the MVP Group make it a total of three new teams in the local professional league next season?

Adrian Dy - NLEX should make the leap

Since the inception of the PBA Developmental League, the NLEX Road Warriors squad has been the team to beat, making the Finals in all six of the conferences held so far, and taking home five trophies. That’s a dominant stretch virtually unheard of in sports.

While it’s still unclear just what process the PBA will use if it accepts three new teams into the fold, it’s worth looking at the last time a PBL/PBA-DL team worked its way up to the major league, the then-Welcoat Dragons (now Rain or Shine Elasto Painters).

Back in 2006, Welcoat took over the Shell franchise, with the PBA allowing the club to elevate three amateurs from their PBL squad directly to the pros, by-passing the draft. The Dragons tabbed Jay-R Reyes (currently with Ginebra), Junjun Cabatu and Jay Sagad, then filled out their roster with a few more PBL signings, some former Shell players, and several choices from the dispersal draft. We can thus assume that the league will grant the NLEX, along with Blackwater, another PBA-DL team looking for a promotion, a similar ability to bring up some of their semi-pro players, likely more than the three Welcoat/Rain or Shine was given, due to the fact that three teams are coming in at the same time.

NLEX has dominated the PBA-DL largely because their lineups read like a who’s who of amateur standouts. Give them the ability to elevate some of them, and not only would the team have a strong core of players to build on, they’d also be denying opponents a chance to strengthen their squads through the draft.

Just take a look at their 2013 PBA-DL Foundation Cup roster, the squad they had prior to the 2013 PBA Draft. Among their ranks were Greg Slaughter (drafted first overall), RR Garcia (sixth), Nico Salva (11th), and Eric Camson (16th), or in other words, two first round picks and two second round picks.

The team they used to win this past Aspirants Cup is not as overwhelming, but they still have a number of names that can be expected to go pretty high, such as Kevin Alas and Garvo Lanete, who have already declared for the draft, plus forwards Jake Pascual, Matt Ganuelas, and Ronald Pascual. All five of those are also Gilas cadet squad members.

If the MVP Group is serious about fielding a contender, now is the time to elevate NLEX, especially since its unlikely they’ll get a similar level talent influx come next season (the two big MVP-aligned college players, Baser Amer and Kiefer Ravena, still have a year of eligibility and there aren’t any graduating players of the same caliber).


Job De Leon - In the interest of real development, NLEX should stay

But in a league where the road to the championship passes through the San Miguel Corporation (winning 12 of 23 championships in the last decade), NLEX's potential elevation validates the perception that fielding more teams is the best way to win a trophy. Perhaps what can be explored, moving forward, is how the PBA can expand the role of the D-League in providing a partial solution towards league parity among the professional ranks.

From a franchise perspective, the D-League is a springboard for owners before deciding to take the plunge (sometimes literally, into financial debt) into the PBA. Most of the development that goes on is for loose individual interests (pro prospects play to improve their draft position) or the interests of amateur squads (when college teams ally with commercial sponsors to stay busy in the offseason). Ironically what's missing is the development that serves the interests of the league's own namesake, the PBA itself.

Teams like the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets in the NBA have affiliate teams in the NBA-DL, that provide an arena for their younger talents to gain confidence and familiarity with their mother team's system. Shuttling players who are too talented for the amateurs but not quite ripe for the PBA, between leagues, would be a tremendous advantage in player development.

If teams were given the chance to legitimately ally with farm teams, imagine what Rain or Shine could do to fashion prospective cogs in their machine, or the leeway that GlobalPort would have to experiment with their surplus prospects. A glut of once-favored rookies would also get a better chance at proving themselves, giving the Lester Alvarezes, Eric Salamats and Dave Marcelos of the league a chance to rediscover themselves before they're completely buried beneath a fresher wave of prospects.

With more structured player development in place, teams like Barako Bull might not feel the need to constantly rebuild by trading away their stars for scraps. On the other end of the spectrum the Petron/San Miguel Beer franchise can fight the urge to shuffle lineups out of desperation, knowing that there's a player or two they can call up to contribute.

There's still a lot to hash out (ownership agreements, player contracts, conditions of transfers and the like) but at the very least we can encourage a system that is more inclusive of the players they want to represent, and rewards patience and trust instead of deep pockets as a measure of a championship-caliber team. - GMA News