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With an added emphasis on players sliding into new roles and positions that suit the international game, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) program director Tab Baldwin believes there is more to some of the best young talents in the world. national team in the near future.
Justine Baltazar and Dwight Ramos, in particular, were some of the names that Baldwin mentioned when he spoke of positional growth.
Baltazar was one of Gilas Pilipinas’ brightest stars in the second window of the 2021 FIBA Asian Cup qualifiers last November, when he averaged 7.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals in a two-game sweep over Thailand
While the De La Salle University great cornerstone man is currently considered one of the top return-to-the-basket talents at the amateur level, Baldwin said his development will certainly involve him playing away from the paint.
“Honestly, the plan for him will be to develop him more and more as a perimeter player,” Baldwin said. Trainers without filter podcast. “I think he can become a very, very good wing and it will be a real problem for other teams that lay wings and defend on the wing.”
Although a change to wing position won’t happen anytime soon, Baldwin said the 6-foot-8 center expressed a lot of enthusiasm for that growth area.
“I talked to him about it, he’s excited,” he said. “But it’s a long-term perspective. It won’t happen in the February window (in 2021).”
That enthusiasm comes from a unique mentorship Baltazar has under the concurrent head coach of the Athenaeum, who fostered a relationship with the Green Archers center during training camp before the Bahrain bubble.
“Before my relationship with him went anywhere, Matt Nieto came up to me and said, ‘Balti is the coolest guy you’ll ever meet. None of us knew that it’s funny, it’s funny. ‘ And of course I saw him as a shy guy who didn’t answer questions in video sessions, “shared Baldwin.
“As soon as Matt told me that, of course I was going to point Balti for the La Salle-Ateneo thing. So I went into the next video session and I think I said something like, ‘Balti, the more I see you in blue , I like you more. ‘Of course he had a big smile on his face and he kind of broke the ice. “
There is much more work involved in moving Baltazar to the perimeter, but Baldwin is optimistic.
“He’s so much fun working with him, and La Salle really has a gem, and I know they really love him like they should, and he loves them like he should,” she said. “He’s a great guy to work with, and we’re just scratching the surface of this player. What a good basketball player he’s going to be.”
Ramos, on the other hand, could become a legitimate threat at the base position.
“I think so,” Baldwin said when asked if Ramos could see more time at a venue in the future. “I think Dwight, his skill set carries over to the point guard position.
The 6-foot-5 Athenaeum pick emerged as Gilas’ second-best scorer in the second window and averaged 12.7 points, shooting 61.9 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from long range, to go with 5.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals.
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Gilas Pilipinas crushed Thailand, 93-61, to open the second window of the 2021 FIBA Asian Cup qualifiers.
While his 2.3 assists per game didn’t really jump off the page, Baldwin said Ramos showed he was very capable of creating good looks for his teammates.
“Dwight sees the court exceptionally well. He has good distribution skills, he’s a creator, he’s a very good shooting guard,” observed Baldwin. “I think his skill set means that we will be able to see that in the future. But he, again, is another who will need international experience to understand how to play that role effectively.”
Ramos has a long way to go before being considered to run offenses at the national team level, but Baldwin already envisions more flexible and versatile lineups with the 22-year-old in the future.
“With him you have the luxury of having a bigger defender in the escort lineup. So if you play with two smaller guards, he can still move and protect larger wings, and you could use the two smaller guards, someone like a CJ “. Pérez or Juan (Gómez de Liaño): move them and they can mark the point guard, “he said.
For another young star in Kobe Paras, the discussion is a bit different.
Baldwin believes that the next step in his progression is the great talent that the second-generation high-flying pilot has individually, in the way of continually learning to play in the team environment alongside other elite talents.
“Kobe has a lot to learn about the game, and I think if you follow Kobe’s development over the years, he has always been in the point of view of ‘Come in and be the star’. So he has always had a great weight of expectations, “said Baldwin.
“And when you add to that that Kobe can dazzle us with highlights, a lot of people get confused between highlights and quality basketball,” he continued. “That’s where Kobe is; his path or his runway is longer. He is learning to be a quality basketball player in the context of what the team demands of him and the context of playing with many other elite talents.”
But that’s not at all an indictment of Paras’ abilities. Despite his overall numbers in Bahrain looking tough (the 23-year-old averaged 3.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.0 assists on 15.4 percent shooting), Baldwin said “his attitude is as good as everyone else’s. “
In fact, Paras, a natural swingman, showed he was capable of sacrifice by willingly carrying the burden of playing at the undersized Filipino team’s power forward position.
“All credit to Kobe because he submitted to the environment, he worked extremely hard. We played him out of position because we really needed his size and strength around the basket, and he was not comfortable at all, so that was a burden.” He took it for us and never once complained, “Baldwin said.
“I think at one point in the second game I said, ‘Kobe, go out there and play band now,’ and he said, ‘Thank you coach, I’m dying to do that’ with a smile on his face. We were aware that we were asking him. him to make an additional sacrifice playing out of position, but not a peep from him about it.
“He did his job, and he did the best he could. He was frustrated that he didn’t do better performances, but as far as I’m concerned his pros and cons were good, his heart stats were always very good. Well, so He was working very hard to do a great job for the team. “
His mentality and competitiveness, which were reflected during the short camp of the national team, will also work in favor of Paras in the future.
“Kobe, to me, is long-term, potentially a tremendous player for our program,” Baldwin said. “Kobe’s attitude is extraordinary. He really, really wants to be a great player, he has an extremely competitive mentality. Obviously, from an athletic point of view, he is elite. He is one of the best athletes I have been with.”
