Alaska-Meralco swap: Hugnatan for Thiele, Bugia

This just in, the Alaska Aces have traded "Swiss army knife" Reynel Hugnatan to the young Meralco Bolts for frontliners Hans Thiele and Paolo Bugia. Of the names involved, you'd have to love it for Thiele who made a mark as an energy wing-type (think Kelly Williams, Rich Alvarez, Marc Pingris) last conference, while you'd have to think that this is another smart/ shady move by Alaska (who has a knack for trading away steady players who have contributed so much but are saddled with big contracts i.e. Abbarientos, Duremdes).

At first glance, Alaska wins based on age and what Thiele and Bugia could bring to the table. Camp UE (Alaska now has Mark Borboran and Bonbon Custodio to pair with Thiele, maybe they'll also sign Rudy Lingganay from the ABL and throw in UAAP MVP Kelvin Gregorio in there for good measure down the line) now features agile, athletic wings, young bigs and backcourt general L.A. Tenorio.

For Meralco, you'd have to hope that Hugnatan stays healthy and blue collar attitude rubs off on known hot-headed teammates Mac Cardona and Sol Mercado. I'm not quite sure where MB head coach Ryan Gregorio is going with this. Either he believes that there's still life in the old legs of Asi Taulava (and probably of Marlou Aquino who was reported to be in talks with MB) or that Beau Belga is ready to take his place as Noli Locsin version 2.0 at power forward (minus the aerial acrobatics-- but who knows?).

Final verdict: advantage Alaska

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