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There have been two lines of thought regarding the Gilas Pilipinas team that is competing in the 2021 FIBA Asian Cup Qualifiers.
At one end of the spectrum, a team of pure cadets is needed, as it will help them prepare for the 2023 FIBA World Cup. The Philippines are already secured a place in the world match and need not feature prominently in the Asian Cup as they are one of the three hosts.
On the other hand, Gilas still needs PBA players so the young cadets can develop chemistry with their older, more experienced brothers.
Gilas’ acting head coach Jong Uichico and program director Tab Baldwin are in unison in saying that having professionals is a must in the February window.
“They are all very impressive, but you also have two ways of thinking when it comes to the players: the ready today and maybe tomorrow. So you need to balance that. They are ready today, Juan GDL, Dwight Ramos and Matt Nieto. Many are ready. today “ Uichico told 2OT presented by SMART Sports.
“But you also have to consider who can be ready tomorrow, for example, lang it has Justine Baltazar, Kmark Honey, maybe Isaac Go just because of their size, and if Calvin Oftana just because they have size, length and maybe they could be Ready to. morning,“he continued.
“You have to balance all these things.”
Difficult will be the outings for the Gilas team leading Group A in February.
The Philippines could play South Korea twice, a country they have not beaten in both FIBA sanctioned competitions and Asian Games since 2013. Then there is the reshaped Indonesian team that has Rajko Toroman as head coach. and Lester Prosper and Brandon Jawato as his marquee players.
However, one good thing is the working relationship between SBP and PBA.
The PBA even set an April start date for its 46th season in order to accommodate the February window.
“We are planning and obviously we have to talk to all of our partners who are involved in the basketball landscape, my good friends from the PBA, SBP, our bosses and all the university teams as well. We don’t know when the college programs will be in early January, so there is a lot to do,”Baldwin wondered during Coaches Unfiltered, also presented by SMART Sports.
“But I think we’ve already seen Chief Al [Panlilio]Comments in the media that we are probably looking to bring PBA players back into the mix. Those were his comments and I support him, but again, I think there was a PBA board meeting. [last Thursday] so they may have discussed that. We may have some news in the future on that, but I think with the PBA planning a later start date in 2021, there may be no restrictions on what we could do with the PBA players, but until all the bosses Sit down and discuss all that, we can not know,” he said.
“But we certainly hope to have access to the same group of players and if we can extend that to other players, including the possibility of Ange Kouame getting his naturalization. We don’t know yet if that will be completed by then, but that would be great too. If all that could happen, I think we can do a few different things in the February window. “
Plus, these games bring national pride at the end of the day.
