Jerrick Balanza heads to NorthPort and reunites with Letran coach Bonnie Tan. PBA Images (file photo) |
MANILA—Fresh from winning his first professional basketball championship, Jerrick Balanza is set to reunite with his college coach.
Balanza makes his way to NorthPort as Ginebra swung a trade that mainly includes a swap in draft order on Friday as approved by the PBA trade committee.
Balanza will be together again with Letran Knights coach Bonnie Tan, who is also the Batang Pier's team manager, through the trade with the team which is reportedly renaming themselves as One Ginebra Nation.
However, this also means Ginebra goes higher in Sunday's draft.
Both teams exchanged orders on how they will draft in the second regular round, which means the Barangay now have the 13th pick in the regular draft, while the Batang Pier now own the 24th regular pick.
In effect, Ginebra, which also has the 12th pick or the last first round pick in the regular draft, gets to select back-to-back as they look to defend both the Philippine Cup and the returning Governors' Cup titles.
The trade came exactly a week after both teams swapped big men with Christian Standhardinger heading to the Barangay and Greg Slaughter going to the Batang Pier.
[Related Story: Standhardinger heads to Ginebra, Slaughter to NorthPort]
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