More than the raiding, what bothers me more really is the firesale that Powerade is doing today. There's no apt way of looking at it, and DT explicitly cited this. You don't peddle your 5 best players (Casio, Lassiter, David, Kramer, Anthony) in the trading block (if rumors were true) if your franchise is bent to stick it out for the next few seasons. Especially if this nucleus catapulted you to a runnerup finish in no less than the All Filipino Conference.
How can one actually explain this? There are three objectives in what Powerade is doing today:
1. Trade their players for good commodities as well that will still make the team competitive and marketable when they sell the franchise. Part of the trade will include cash considerations.
2. Bring down their operational costs. If they can give up on Gary David, who's earning P420k a month for players whose salaries are half of what he's receiving, or for future draft picks, then they'll be spending so much less in their remaining one conference in the league. If you're wondering how Lassiter (salary P150k) and Cruz (salary around P100k) were given up for Al-Husseini (salary P225k), Tugade (salary around P150k) and Guevarra (salary around P150k) and can't find a relationship to the objective of bringing down operational costs, the bigger question here is: why would Powerade pay for players earning twice as much more than what they're paying now? And if the Cortez-Casio-Cabagnot deal is consummated, why would they pay Cortez P300k or more when they're only paying Casio P150k? Or an Anthony for Devance trade when Anthony's earning around P200k a month while Devance is paid P350k? Ever thought about the likelihood of SMC paying for the excess amount of salaries so that Powerade's expenses will remain the same?
3. So now, Powerade has done two things - earn cash on the side with the trades and bring down their costs. Once the season ends, they will now sell the franchise. Will the value considerably go down? Not exactly - especially if you have guys like Al-Husseini, Guevarra, Tugade, Vanlandingham, possibly Cortez, etc. in your team. It's not a championship team unlike before but it's a good team to build on for a new franchise owner. Much better than what Air 21 has today. And much better than what Rain Or Shine (then Welcoat) had to contend with when they joined the PBA in 2005. They won't be able to sell the franchise at around P120M, but they probably can still offer this, especially if they have future draft picks available, at the vicinity of P90M.