THOUGHTS | THE MAGNOLIA VETS

I have said this in a previous blog that Magnolia is starting to phase out its veterans.

If you are a fan of Paul Lee, Mark Barroca, and Ian Sangalang, this sucks. And while I understand why the move needs to happen, I still believe these three would make a significant impact on other teams.

If they continue to play under LA Tenorio, they will see their playing time decrease. Again, you can't fault Tenorio for this. If he wants to stay with Magnolia for a long time, he needs players to build a core to help him form a championship dynasty instead of relying on the win-now situation of his vets.

Paul Lee is in his 14th season. Aside from the fact that he's already 37, he is also injury-prone. Barroca is also in his 14th season, and he will turn 40 years old this month. Despite this, the difference between Lee and Barroca is that the Coffee Prince is rarely injured. If you compare their games played, Barroca has 60-something more games compared to Angas ng Tondo.

And then we have Ian Sangalang, who is now in his 12th season and will turn 35 this December. Now, his age is not as concerning as we have seen top picks of recent memory who are almost two or three years younger than him. Still, the playing time privilege arrow is pointing at the 27-year-old Zavier Lucero, who has been ballin' this season.

THE MAGNOLIA VETS

	PAUL LEE	MARK BARROCA	IAN SANGALANG
YEAR OF BIRTH	1989	1986	1991
MVP	0	0	0
MYTHICAL 5	2	1	0
MYTHICAL 10	2	1	2
BPC	1	0	0
FINALS MVP	1	2	0
CHAMPIONSHIPS	3	6 (GRAND SLAM)	4 (GRAND SLAM)

One point I have to make is that Barroca and Sangalang have only played for Magnolia in their entire PBA careers. Meanwhile, Paul Lee started his career with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters before the trade that sent James Yap to the other side happened. If Lee had stayed with ROS, I bet Yeng Guiao would slowly phase him out, the same way we have seen with Gabe Norwood and Beau Belga. And if history serves us well, we have seen similar actions from the fiery mentor with regard to Nelson Asaytono, Vergel Meneses, Bong Alvarez, Vince Hizon, Asi Taulava, Larry Fonacier, and Cyrus Baguio. Guiao's no-superstar policy affects veterans more compared to second-generation stars like Shaun Ildefonso and Jeric Teng, and players with superstar mindsets like Carlo Lastimosa.

But back to Magnolia, it would be insane to see Barroca, Lee, and Sangalang get traded, with the uncertainty of their status on other teams. Yes, they might experience some sort of career rebirth, like what happened with Arwind Santos when he moved to NorthPort after getting traded out of San Miguel, but then he was left without a team after his contract expired.

And let's face it, who in their right mind would trade an SMC retirement package, as well as a possible jersey retirement, to start over?

These Magnolia players aren't like Maverick Ahanmisi, who demanded to move out because he believes he still has a couple of seasons to strut his stuff. What we are seeing from these three is almost the same thing we saw with Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand.

The only reason why their optics are bad is that Magnolia isn't as title-driven as in previous seasons. For these three, I think it's best for them to just accept whatever role they have with the team. Yes, LA Tenorio may want to trade them if there is an interested party, but I think it is within the franchise's best interests to keep them until they hang up their jerseys.

And it's not like Magnolia is getting the worst players, with deals that brought in Lucero, Javi Gomez de Liano, Will Navarro (although he ditched the squad to move to the KBL), and Chris Koon as examples.

It's not like the Hotshots' bind will stay with them forever, as I'll be damned if the SMC bigwigs wouldn't try their best to secure draft picks from other teams.