The Inaugural Baller Awards: The Breakthrough PBA Player, Best PBA Newcomer, and PBA Player of the Year for 2013

In lieu of a PBA year-ender, I felt it would be better to go position-by-position and look at the best PBAers of 2013. These are the guys who did really well in the pro circuit. Perhaps they led their teams to conference titles. Perhaps they led the league in a certain statistical category. Perhaps they were part of Gilas Pilipinas and helped the team make history. Perhaps they did all of those things.

In this post, we will give Baller Awards to the Breakthrough PBA Player, Best PBA Newcomer, and PBA Player of the Year for 2013.

Where does Ranidel De Ocampo stand in the
race for the PBA's Player of the Year for 2013?
(image by Paolo Papa/AKTV)

2012 PBA Philippine Cup Roundup: December 5, 2012

Niño Cañaleta has all the tools to dominate in the PBA. At 6’6”, he has the size to be the perfect “stretch forward” (i.e. a combo forward) in the PBA. With his handles, shooting, and leaping ability, Cañaleta is a more versatile scorer than another comparable “stretch” – Arwind Santos, though, admittedly, Santos is better at the dirty work. There’s a reason, after all, that Santos, one of Cañaleta’s old rivals from the UAAP, is at the very top of the PBA’s Player Efficiency ladder.

Still, Cañaleta has gone a helluva long way from the unsure and inconsistent slotman he was in college. When he was still playing for the UE Red Warriors, he found it difficult getting overshadowed by the likes of FEU’s Santos and Mark Isip, Adamson’s Ken Bono, and even Ateneo’s Paolo Bugia and Doug Kramer. He was forced to play center and bang bodies under the boards when he had the skill set of a natural swingman. He was a rare find in local hoops, but he wasn’t exactly being maximized.

Now, with a team devoid of the star power prevalent in the PBA’s more ballyhooed squads, Cañaleta finally has the time of day to really strut his stuff. The 6^th overall pick in the 2005 draft currently has the second highest player efficiency rating in Air 21’s roster (only Mike Cortez is better). He is averaging a career-high 29 minutes per game, registering, unsurprisingly, his best scoring numbers yet – 14.7ppg. He’s also norming nearly 6 rebounds per game for the first time since his sophomore season back in ’06-’07.

Niño Cañaleta may be ripe and ready to finally be
one of the PBA's brightest superstars.

And, get this, those were his numbers BEFORE unloading 41 (yes, FORTY ONE markers) on the hapless Batang Pier to go along with 7 rebounds. With him finally breaking out in the biggest way possible, is Niño Cañaleta finally ready to realize his vast potential and rise to the uppermost echelon of stars in the PBA?