At least three teams in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) have bolstered their ranks ahead of the league's 35th season this Oct. 14 following a multi-player deal after the Rookie Draft on Sunday. The Barangay Ginebra Kings, the Purefoods TJ Giants and the Burger King Whoppers agreed to trade key players among themselves. Ginebra appeared to have benefitted the most from the deal as it strengthened its frontline with the inclusion of Enrico Villanueva, Rich Alvarez and Paolo Bugia formerly with Purefoods. The Kings also beefed up their backcourt with the inclusion of Celino Cruz and Cholo Villanueva from Burger King. Villanueva and Alvarez, long-time teammates and members of the Ateneo Blue Eagles who won the 2002 UAAP championship, would add height and heft to the Kings' struggling frontline of Erik Menk and Billy Mamaril. Cruz would toughen up Ginebra's backcourt as he teams up with Jayjay Helterbrand, Mark Caguioa and Ronald Tubid. In return, the Kings gave up speedy guard Paul Artadi, rookie Chris Timberlake, neophyte Orlando Daroya, veteran slotman Rafi Reavis and a future pick. Artadi would join his old team Purefoods, which also re-acquired forward Marc Pingris from Burger King. The Giants also took Timberlake, a promising rookie, and Reavis. Burger King got the flexible Daroya and future picks. Earlier, the Whoppers took the No. 1 pick in the Rookie Draft, 6'10” national team member Japeth Aguilar. Aguilar is expected to at least cushion the impact of the loss of Arwind Santos who was traded by Burger King to San Miguel Beermen last week. Burger King also acquired Ronjay Buenafe from Coca-Cola. The Whoppers released Larry Rodriguez to Coca-Cola, which also traded Nic Belasco to Talk 'N Text. Meanwhile, the Powerade-Team Pilipinas opens its 25th FIBA-Asia men's basketball championship campaign against Sri Lanka on Thursday at the Tianjin gym in Tianjin, China. The game will kick off a heavy eight-game opening day schedule that will also see title favorite China facing India, defending champion Iran battling Chinese-Taipei and Lebanon taking on Jordan in an early matchup of two giants. After their game with Sri Lanka, which the Filipinos are expected to come out of with ease, the Philippines next faces Japan on Aug. 7, before concluding its Group A assignment against Korea on Aug. 8. Comprising the Philippine team are skipper Asi Taulava, Jayjay Helterbrand, Mick Pennisi, Kerby Raymundo, James Yap, Sonny Thoss, Willie Miller, Arwind Santos, Gabe Norwood, Jared Dillinger, Cyrus Baguio and Japeth Aguilar. Yap, however, won't be joining the team until Thursday as he will be attending the burial of his mother-in-law, former president Corazon Aquino, who passed away Saturday. A top three finish by the Filipinos in Group A will allow them to move into the next elimination phase – a carry-over round against qualifiers from Group B, composed of defending champion Iran, Uzbekistan, Taiwan and Kuwait. The same format applies in Groups C and D, with the top eight teams from the two brackets advancing to the knockout quarterfinals. The four winners move up into the semifinal round, with the victorious teams meeting in the championship. __
