PBA Erram out to prove his worth

NLEX coach Yeng Guiao is optimistic that acquiring center John Paul Erram would be worth every penny, noting how many players and draft picks they needed to give up just to get the services of the 6-foot-8 slotman.

NLEX recently entered into a trade agreement where the Road Warriors gave up rookie picks Paul Desiderio and Abu Tratter and Guiao’s protégé Mike Miranda just to acquire the 29-year-old Erram.

“To get Erram, we got him in exchange for our number four and number seven picks and Mike. So that’s three,” disclosed Guiao, “But what people might not notice, to get number four we had to give up Alex Mallari and Dave Marcelo.”

“If you look at it, we lost our fourth and seventh picks, we lost Alex and Dave, we lost Mike for one person,” added Guiao. “So I hope it’s going to be worth the cost.”

The trade was initially disapproved by the PBA but both NLEX and Erram’s now-former team Blackwater revised the deal by including TNT KaTropa in their amended pact, later on approved by the league, that saw Miranda and Elite’s future second round picks ending up with KaTropa, Erram and seldom-used center Papot Paredes going to the Road Warriors and Desiderio and Tratter finally going to the Elite.

For his part, Erram assures he will be giving his all while playing for NLEX as he is very much aware of the sacrifices made by the Road Warriors just to get his services.

“It only shows how important I am to this team,” said Erram.

Adjustment meantime won’t be a major issue for Erram whose stint with the national team under Guiao would help the Cagayan de Oro-native slotman easily embrace the system being utilized by NLEX.

“He knows what I want and he knows what our plays are. Maybe 80 percent of our plays we ran with the national team are also the plays we run here,” said Guiao. “He could be a game changer for us and make us a contender.”