The Meralco Bolts will have to wait until next conference to add draft picks Jason Brickman and Vince Magbuhos to their roster.
Team manager Paolo Trillo told Pinoystep.com that the team wasn’t able to meet the December 22, 2025 deadline including the two players as the Bolts were still in the midst of their playoffs campaign against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at that time.
The Bolts, seeded No.7 in the Philippine Cup, were able to hurdle the No.2 ranked Elasto Painters in two straight games of the quarterfinal round to make their wat back to the Final Four for the first time since winning the Philippine Cup two years ago, becoming the lowest-seeded squad to make this conference’s semifinal round.
“We were not able to meet the December 22 deadline set by the PBA, so we have to wait for next conference,” said Trillo. “Those two players, on the other hand, went straight all the way to the championship round of the MPBL.”
“Knowing how long and exhausting their respective campaigns were, we decided to forego plans of signing them up to give them enough time to recover. Second, we didn’t expect to make it deep to the playoffs, so now we just have to make do on what we have.”
Brickman went back home in the United States for a vacation, but both he and Magbuhos are expected to sign up with the Bolts after the end of the Philippine Cup. Both players became part of champion teams in the MPBL with the 33-year-old Fil-Am guard winning the national title while playing for the Abra Weavers.
Magbuhos, on the other hand, is a 6-foot-4 forward who played for the Quezon Huskers, the back-to-back southern division champs in the MPBL.
The Bolts had played more games than any squad in the PBA, being the country’s lone representative in the East Asia Super League and continued to work on during the Holiday Seasons in preparation for the upcoming semifinals encounter with the TNT Tropang 5G.
But for coaches Luigi Trillo, who handles the Bolts in the PBA, and Nenad Vucinic, the Sebian mentor of the squad in the EASL, Meralco had already embraced the tough situation the team had been facing in and outside the PBA.
Despite the challenges the squad had been going through, it seems that it has toughened the squad more as evident by its successful playoff campaign against the favored Elasto Painters.
“Thsi is a very special time for our franchise because we are not only competing locally, but we are battling around Asia as well. We don’t take that for granted and we’re seeing it with the players, too,” said Trillo.
Cliff Hodge, who’s been playing extensively both in the PBA and the EASL, is more than willing to give his 37-year-old body an extra push.
“All of those tournaments, we were going up against really tough teams,” said Hodge. “It just brings out the best in everyone of us even those our really, really hard. All those imports playing there, you have to guard them and it helped us a lot even though it was harder.”
“We only lost a few games this conference. We’re now starting to prove that we are a championship-caliber team, but we’ve got to show up everyday.”
Bong Quinto, a 6-foot-2 swingman, is also convinced that the EASL has toughened up the Bolts in the ongoing PBA campaign.
“Oo naman, lalo na sa EASL yung quality ng competition ng liga,” added Quinto. “Ang laking opportunity para sa aming mga local players kasi ang laki ng playing time mng mga imports kaya yung experience na nakukuha namin doon, nadadala namin dito sa PBA.”
