[valentine]

can you guys evaluate this guy? he is a bit old to be a prospect, he is actually 24 years old, he tried-out for an NBA d-league team, he has a lot of bounce and can shoot three, he lacks post moves, and gets rebounds beause of his mad bounce,

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wUCGC3AQsfo&quot; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sorry if the vid is poor quality

[FilipinoElla]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUCGC3AQsfo

[JRdaFilipinoParticipant]

 So he’s basically a poor man’s Yi Jianlian… which really isn’t saying much lol

[OrangeJuiceJonesParticipant]

 I know a lot of Filipinos, and, at times, I honestly believe that a successful Filipino NBA player would receive more praise and idolation than Manny Pacquiao. 

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

I know even SLAM did an article talking to Manny about basketball. Nonetheless, while this guy looks like a decent athlete and has a basketball body (well, he is 6’10), the fact that he was never even talked about as a draft prospect at 24 years old, I don’t like his odds of being the Filipino Yao Ming. Looking further, it appears he played college ball at Western Kentucky, where he averaged 1.8 ppg, 1.2 rpg and 0.6 bpg over 16 games and 103 minutes over his career (http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/players/playerpage/1145024).

After college he was the first pick in the 2009 PBA Draft by The Burger King Whoppers (yes, this really happened). As a matter of fact, this was what happened after he was drafted by the Whoppers:

"In what may appear like much ado about nothing, Burger King officials said on Monday that their No. 1 overall pick Japeth Aguilar will no longer be part of the team and will be traded first to Barako Bull which will then ship the player to Talk ‘N Text which then will release the player to the Smart-Gilas team."

-http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/224395/burger-king-trade-aguilar-after-just-one-game

Aguilar actually started his university career in the Philippines, hence the only two years at WKU. He seemed to kill domestically, then had two stress fractures during his time at Western Kentucky. Also on his wikipedia page, it compares his playing style to Yi Jianlian and Chris Bosh. The vid was fun and all, but he does not appear to be NBA material and seemed to be killing inferior competition. Remember, Yi is a 7 footer with "mad bounce" who was thought of highly enough to be the 6th pick in the draft, and he has struggled with the physicality of the NBA. I am guessing that Japeth more than likely is not even close to Yi’s level, and more than likely will stick to starring in the PBA.

[JRdaFilipinoParticipant]

^^^ Most definitely! I highly doubt that will ever happen though. Any tall, lanky, athletic big man who could shoot coming out of Asia will probably always be overlooked now… thank you Yi. As for Filipino perimeter players.. yeah, the hope is small but still there lol

[FilipinoElla]

 LoL, i’ll find a Filipino perimeter player, scout scout scout, hehehe

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