IT was one and done for Alaska and Rain or Shine in this edition of the PBA rookie draft.
The two independent teams picked just one player each during the proceedings, with the Aces settling for Carl Bryan Cruz and the Elasto Painters selecting Mike Tolomia in the special draft on Sunday before both squads waived their selections in the regular draft.
Aces assistant coach Louie Alas bared they had some more players in mind, but couldn’t accommodate them.
“Marami kaming gusto kaya lang wala na kaming slot eh,” the top deputy of coach Alex Compton said. “Parang unfair sa players na kukunin namin pero ‘di naman namin mapapapirma.”
[See After being mentored by Ildefonso, Fajardo more than willing to help rookie AVO]
E-Painters coach Caloy Garcia echoed Alas' words, saying they'd let other teams pick those who they can’t sign.
“We don’t want to give a player false hope,” the new ROS coach said. “Baka may ibang team na may gusto sa kanila. Since kami, we see that our lineup is already complete, medyo masaya na kami sa nakuha namin.
In previous instances, teams would collect draft picks, but ended up not signing all of them.
This year, young squads Phoenix and Mahindra had the most picks with five each, while TNT Katropa, GlobalPort and Meralco had four apiece.
Blackwater, which owned the top picks in the both drafts, had three selections like Ginebra and San Miguel Beer, while Star and NLEX had two picks each.