THE INAUGURAL BALLER AWARDS: THE BEST PBA NEWCOMER FOR 2013
In lieu of a PBA year-ender, I felt it would be better to go position-by-position and look at the best PBAers of 2013. These are the guys who did really well in the pro circuit. Perhaps they led their teams to conference titles. Perhaps they led the league in a certain statistical category. Perhaps they were part of Gilas Pilipinas and helped the team make history. Perhaps they did all of those things.
In this post, we will give a Baller Award to the Best PBA Newcomer for 2013.
The Best Newcomer Nominees:
Calvin Abueva – Alaska
Abueva won last season’s Rookie of the Year plum, and with good reason, too. I mean, he came out of the gates guns blazing and hell be damned. Nobody was safe from the Beast’s rampage, and it all culminated in his leading Alaska to the 2013 Commish Cup crown. Despite less-than-flattering shooting numbers, Abueva still recorded an impressive 31.63 EFF for the season, buoyed in a big way by his near-double-double averages – around 12 points and 9 rebounds per outing. Even more impressive? The number of boos he received from opposing fans every time he touched the basketball.
Chris Ellis – Ginebra
The 6-5 high-flyer from the Kings’ roster was definitely one of the most entertaining players last season. The way he ran up and down the floor and leapt for those lobs left people anticipating emphatic throwdowns, but the knock on this Fil-Foreigner was the he seemed like a one-trick pony. Sure, he could jump out of the gym and was as athletic as the next kid, but could he do anything else aside from rattling the rack? The jury is still out on that.
June Mar Fajardo – Petron Blaze and Gilas Pilipinas
Unlike Abueva, Fajardo didn’t start his rookie campaign like a house on fire, but he did end it with aplomb. He led the Boosters to within a win of the 2013 Govs’ Cup crown and was part of the Gilas Pilipinas squad that booked a ticket to the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain. Perhaps even more impressive than those achievements, however, was the steady rise in his game as the season progressed. He went from promising big man in the Philippine Cup, to someone who could really dominate in the paint on both ends of the floor by the season’s end. Right now, the Kracken, his knee injury notwithstanding, continues to pile on the impressive numbers. He is currently the league’s leader in rebounding (17.3 per game) and overall player efficiency (46.33 EFF).
Cliff Hodge – Meralco
Like Abueva, Hodge started his rookie season in a very impressive way. He wasted no time in showcasing his tenacity and athleticism in the 2013 Philippine Cup, reminding everyone of a young Rudy Hatfield. And then when the Govs’ Cup came along to end the season, Hodge showed a new facet of his game – the three point shot. Clearly, this was a guy who wasn’t satisfied with just doing what he’s good at. He ended last season as third-best among rookies with an EFF of 25.97. He’s currently struggling, though, as an injury early in the 2014 Philippine Cup has seemed to hamper his progress.
Vic Manuel – Air21 (currently, but he played for GlobalPort last season)
Despite not possessing the most heralded image or not even getting a lot of minutes (he normed just around 18 minutes per game), Manuel recorded solid numbers in his maiden PBA season. The former PSBA Jaguar averaged 8.1ppg and 4.1rpg while shooting 47.7% from the field for GlobalPort, which shipped him to Air21 for the current season. Right now, Manuel is doing even better, averaging around 10 points and 5 boards per outing while shooting close to 57% from the floor.
And the BALLER goes to…
JUNE MAR FAJARDO
For me, the 2013 ROY race was a toss-up between Fajardo and eventual winner Abueva, but what sets Fajardo apart for the Best PBA Newcomer of 2013 are two things: he played for Gilas Pilipinas in the 2013 FIBA Asia (remember that Abueva was invited to the tryouts mid-2013, but he didn’t show up), and his current numbers are improvements on his rookie stats (something that cannot be said about the Beast, whose numbers have dipped a little bit to start the 2014 season). For me, these are enough to put Fajardo ahead of Abueva and be named the Best PBA Newcomer of 2013.
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