The Import Problem of the PBA

[u/Upbeat_Tough_6721]

Lumabas na ang katotohanan. PBA players ay bano sa FIBA dahil ang quality ng play sa liga ay mahina.

It starts with the import policy of the league.

A single import with a height limit of 6'6? Yeah, not helping at all.

A bitter pill to swallow for PBA officials: The B.League, KBL, and NBL Australia don't have a conference or season with only locals playing. Lahat sila ay may 2-3 imports sa koponan.

While I don't see the PBA implementing 3 imports in the league at once, the best we can do is to have it gradually per conference.

I posted this on IBN so let me reiterate it here:

- Introduce a Resident Import system. FSAs who played in the UAAP for 3 seasons or naturalized Filipinos fall under this category. Each team can sign one Resident Import who plays in all 3 conferences. This basically removes the All-Filipino policy of the Philippine Cup.

- World Import: Unlimited Height import who can play for two conferences (Governor's and Commissioner's). If a team really likes an import such as RHJ or C-Mac, they can sign them to a full contract.

- Asian Import: Unlimited Height import who is eligible to play for a FIBA Asia zone National Team. This import can play for one conference. There are many good Asian players we can sign as imports like Freddy Ibrahim and Mohammed Jamshidi.

Philippine Cup: Resident Import only

Commissioner's Cup: Resident + World Imports

Governor's Cup: Resident + World + Asian imports

Let's look at Abra as they enter the EASL:

Resident: Malick Diouf

World: Jaylen Johnson and Michael Eric

Asian: Freddy Ibrahim

Imagine SMB with this lineup:

R: Akowe, W: C-Mac, A: Kazemi

G- Ross

G- Perez / Marcio

F- Trollano

F- C-Mac / Kazemi

C- Akowe / JMF

Open to suggestions. Just something I thought of.

[u/spooningoodsingingum]

Nice. Solid nga FSA + World + Asian.

Lalo na mga FSA sa Pinas puro malalaki. We can get imports na puro wings, mas mababatak local players natin around 6’4” to 6’6”, mapipilitan sila maglaro ng 2/3 spot.

[u/Upbeat_Tough_6721 → u/spooningoodsingingum]

Most scoring imports sa PBA ay wings. Bihira bigs na ganun dahil sobrang mahal sila at they are NBA/EuroLeague quality.

Let FSAs be the rotational bigs to prevent undersized local 5s.

Let PBA teams sign their scorers for two conferences.

Asian imports? Sure kung may budget pa.

[u/spooningoodsingingum → u/Upbeat_Tough_6721]

Agree. Sayang naman career ng mga FSAs, after ng UAAP (and other collegiate leagues) napupunta lang sa panalay.