Gilas Pilipinas: Instant offense

Photo courtesy of Interkasyon.com

Make no mistake about it, come the FIBA Asia tournament this August, Gilas Pilipinas' Gary David will be ready to drop buckets or die trying.

There is no way to go about it really, David is a scorer by trade. He puts the "shooting" in "shooting guard." He is cut from the same cloth as the likes of Vergel Meneses, Nelson Asaytono, Mark Caguioa and lately of upstarts Jericho Cruz, Kevin Alas and Terrence Romeo.

David's not here to make great reads or to find the open man. He isn't there to help move the ball. Yes they call players of his mold a certain reptilian genus, but would you really entrust a baker to build you a house? A chef to paint you a portrait?

With the advent of social media, scorers are now a dying breed. More and more, players would rather make the "correct play" rather than go for broke and win it outright. They call out NBA elite like LeBron James for being passive and Kobe Bryant for being the opposite- but only when they are unable to make plays. When they do, well, these critics shut up. You see it at the local front, with gifted scorers like Romeo being outcast by the media as a selfish ballhog when in reality, he is arguably the best natural local scorer we've seen out of the wood work not since the time of the Cardonas, Yeos and Yaps.

Back to David, and how his scoring expertise helps the Gilas fold.

This team, anchored on small ball and dribble drive motion by head coach Chot Reyes, will hit an offensive snag in games. When the opposing team's defense tightens inside, and our outside shots are not going in, this is where you will need the presence of an established scorer. A guy who knows what to do offensively and will not force it.

During Caguioa's time with the National team, he was the designated scorer. The problem was, at the time, he wasn't as confident with his outside game and was more slasher than shooter. Once the foign teams figured his tendencies, they simply cut all the driving lanes and rendered the future PBA Hall of Famer useless.

We're not saying that David is better, but he is more comfortable with the basketball and just jacking up shots from deep. Downside of course is that David has his extreme hot or cold moments, but there is no denying that David has arguably the best pull up jumper in the PBA today.

On the defensive end, if we can't hand out A's for effort, well, the guy has five handy fouls.