Arwind Santos - PBA Career

PBA Career

In the 2006 PBA Draft, Santos was selected second overall by the Air21 Express. He later signed a deal to play his first three seasons with the team, playing alongside Ranidel de Ocampo, Yancy de Ocampo, and KG Canaleta. He chose to wear the number 29 since his usual number 19 was already worn by Wynne Arboleda.

He ranked first among rookies in scoring during the Philippine Cup and almost led the Express to a quarterfinals appearance only to lose against the Sta. Lucia Realtors in a knockout match. He wound up with averages of 14.2 points per game (ppg), 8.3 rebounds per game (rpg), 0.9 assists per game (apg), 0.8 steals per game (spg), and 1.2 blocks per game (bpg). Because of his sterling play, he made it to the Mythical Second Team as well as the All-Defensive Team.

Santos was one of the leading contenders for the Rookie of the Year (ROY) honors at the season's end with the likes of Sta. Lucia's Kelly Williams and Welcoat's Jay-R Reyes as among the possible winners. Williams eventually won the ROY award. But Santos was part of the All-Rookie Team together with Williams, Jay-R Reyes, Jireh Ibañes and LA Tenorio.

The next season, 2007-2008 season, Santos and Williams faced each other again for the Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference (BPC) award by finishing No. 1 and 2 in the statistical points (SPs). However, despite trailing in the SPs department, Williams would win the award with Santos finishing No. 2 just like in the previous year's rookie race. Santos eventually posted numbers of 16.3 ppg (8th-best), 9.6 rpg (4th best), 1.7 apg, 1.2 spg (8th-best) and 1.5 bpg (2nd-best) on the way to earning a berth in both the Mythical First Team and All-Defensive Team. He also won the Defensive Player of the Year award. He led the Express team to a runner-up finish against Barangay Ginebra together with import Steve Thomas in the Fiesta Cup. At season's end, Santos and Williams battled it out again, this time for the MVP award, which went again to Williams (2762 points) as against Santos' 1775 points. This would be the third time that Williams edged out Santos in the race for a major award (2006-07 ROY and 2007-08 Philippine Cup BPC).

In the 2008-2009 season, Santos averaged 16.7 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.2 spg and 1.1 bpg. By virtue of his consistent play, Santos made it to the Mythical First Team for the second year in a row and the All-Defensive Team for the third straight year. This year would prove to be his last year with the Express team.

During the off season Arwind Santos finally got his wish to play for the San Miguel Beermen, the winningest team in the history of the Philippine Basketball Association. None among the officials confirmed the trade although a highly-placed source revealed that Santos was shipped to the Beermen in exchange for 6'4" power forward Marc Pingris, 6'6" sophomore center Ken Bono and San Miguel's 2010 first round pick.

In the 2009-2010 season, his first year with the San Miguel franchise, he shared stellar minutes with the likes of Jay Washington, Dondon Hontiveros, Danny Seigle and Alex Cabagnot. Because of this his averages dipped a bit as he posted averages of 14.6 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.1 spg and 1.2 bpg. He again made it to the Mythical First Team (3rd-straight) and All-Defensive Team (4th time in 4 years).

In the first round of the 2010-11 Philippine Cup, San Miguel compiled an 11-3 record while Santos averaged 16.6 points per game. In the 2011 PBA Governors Cup, he was awarded with the Best Player of the Conference. He also led his team to an improbable championship in the Governor's Cup conference over the highly favored Talk 'N Text team who were aiming to complete a rare grand slam. In so doing, he was named the Phoenix Fuels-PBA Press Corps Finals MVP. At season's end, Santos posted averages of 15.3 ppg, 10.7 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.0 spg and 1.3 bpg on the way to earning berths in the Mythical First Team and All-Defensive Team for the 4th and 5th year in a row, respectively. Due to his strong showing, he was a prime candidate for the MVP award alongside Barangay Ginebra's Mark Caguioa and Talk 'N Text's Jimmy Alapag. However, in the end, Santos finished a close second to Alapag in the MVP derby with 1,687 points as against the latter's 1,888 points. Caguioa finished a close 3rd with 1,317 points.

In the 2011-12 PBA Season, Santos led Petron Blaze Boosters to a pair of semifinal showings in the Philippine Cup and Governors Cup in a rather disappointing season for him and the team that led to speculations that coach Agustin is now on the way out. However, individually, Santos had another good season posting averages of 15.00 ppg (690 points in 46 games), 10.67 rpg (491 rebounds), 1.33 apg (61 assists), 0.91 spg (42 steals) and 1.43 blkpg (66 blocks). Because of his sterling performance, he was again amply rewarded at season's end with another Mythical First Team citation, his 5th in his 6 years in the league, and his 6th consecutive membership in the All-Defensive Team. He was again a strong candidate for the coveted MVP award by placing second in the statistical points behind Gary David of Powerade Tigers. However, in the final balloting, Santos ended up in 4th place behind eventual MVP Caguioa of Barangay Ginebra, David and James Yap of B-Meg Llamados. This was the second straight year that Santos and Caguioa figured prominently for the highest individual accolade.