For their postseason awards, the PBA rewards the players with the best numbers, as well as their highest finish.
This is most evident with their Rookie of the Year award.
Last season, Stephen Holt was the undisputed winner because despite Terrafirma’s win-loss record, he was still able to put in the numbers, and it’s not like Team Dyip were forever cellar dwellers. His performance, alongside Terrafirma’s turnaround, was one of the reasons why the fans heavily criticized the trade that sent him, alongside Isaac Go, and the draft rights to RJ Abarrientos to Ginebra in exchange for Christian Standhardinger, Stanley Pringle, and the draft rights to Mark Nonoy.
Throughout the league’s history, there have been shockers, because the PBA can’t figure out if they are going to go with the player with the best average or with the highest totals. In 1992, Bong Ravena won the award despite the stats of Vergel Meneses. A couple of years later, Boybits Victoria got the nod despite the strong showing of Noli Locsin. Rico Maierhofer showed promise as a rookie but undrafted Josh Urbiztondo gave him a fight. Most recently, Aaron Black got the better against Terrafirma's top pick Roosevelt Adams.
This season, Ginebra’s RJ Abarrientos is going up against Blackwater’s Sedrick Barefield. The former is a somewhat generation star while the other is almost similar to Holt in terms of situation.
Anyway, here is the list after the Governors’ Cup.
It's insane that from last year's class, the league has seen the gameplay of just 18 rookies.
Justine Baltazar is still seeing action in the MPBL while Pao Javillonar is still finishing up with the Letran Knights. Jerom Lastimosa and Mark Nonoy are expected to see action in the next conference, with Dave Ildefonso hopefully following suit.
The rookie race isn't a two-man race, with the likes of Felix Lemetti, Caelan Tiongson, Paolo Hernandez, CJ Cansino, Kai Ballungay, and Jonnel Policarpio expected to repeat their Governors' Cup performance in the coming conference. Hernandez for starters, is going to be someone we need to check, especially with the situation of Christian Standhardinger, the injury of Juami Tiongson, and the depth problem of Terrafirma.