Santa Cruz Warriors Waive Japeth Aguilar

Japeth Aguilar’s dream of making it to the NBA through its Development League has hit a roadblock.

After days of speculation and rumors, the Santa Cruz Warriors made it official Wednesday night waiving the former Philippine Basketball Association player.

The 25-year-old, 6’ 9” Aguilar formerly of the PBA Talk N’ Text and the Smart Gilas National Team, was informed on Wednesday of the decision.

The formal announcement comes days after the NBA D-League website published what seemed to look like the official roster for the 2012-2013 Santa Cruz Warriors team, the NBA Golden State Warrior affiliate. Aguilar’s name was not amongst the 10 players listed creating online speculation that the Warriors’ had already planned to let the former Ateneo Blue Eagle and Western Kentucky Hilltopper go.

Though the Warriors’ quickly dispelled the online rumors, late Wednesday night the NBA D-League published the players that have been released by their respective team. Aguilar’s name was on it. The Warriors also issued a formal press release announcing the release.

“It came down to numbers when we were determining our 10-man roster,” said Matt De Nesnera, the Warriors’ PR manager, to the Asian Journal. “[Japeth] has improved a lot since the start of camp. He needs to continue to get experience against bigger, stronger and faster players. Hopefully, he will continue to work as hard as he has and get another shot at it.”

Aguilar will be placed on the waiver wire officially on Friday. There is still a chance another team may pick up the former PBA No. 1 draft pick. The D-League season starts next week.

Prior to his release, Aguilar’s agent said if Aguilar does not make the Warriors team, he expects other D-League teams to take a look at him.

“We’re hoping other teams will give him an opportunity to showcase his talents,” said Chris McGarry.

After being drafted in the 7th round, and 109th overall in the D-League draft, Aguilar played sparingly in the Warriors two preseason games against the Tulsa 66ers and the Texas Legends.

He saw limited minutes against the 66ers. In the game against the Legends, Aguilar missed his only field goal attempt, managed to grab three rebounds, dish out one assist but also picked up three fouls.

Throughout training camp Aguilar, a forward and center, had been battling for a spot on the team against 6′ 8” Taylor Griffin (LA Clippers Blake Griffin’s brother), 7’0 Chris Daniels from Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and 6′ 8” Lance Goulbourn from Vanderbilt. Those three players made the Warriors team.

via Santa Cruz Warriors Waive Japeth Aguilar.