Graduation day

The Future is NOW.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is your Gilas Pilipinas 5.0 24-man pool: amateur standouts Mon Abundo, Mac Belo, Kemark Carino, Carl Cruz, Ed Daquioag, Russel Escoto, Kevin Ferrer, Alfonzo Gotladera, Jonathan Grey, Jiovani Jalalon, Chris Javier, Ray Parks, Jaymar Perez, Von Pessumal, Roger Pogoy, Kiefer Ravena, Arvin Tolentino, Mike Tolomia, and Arnold Van Opstal; PBA players Yutien Andrada, JP Erram, Matt Ganuelas, and Almond Vosotros; and the ABL’s Matthew Wright.

With the FIBA Asia Challenge Cup all set for September and the PBA locked in its season-ending Governor’s Cup, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) have opted to send amateur stars mostly from their Cadets training pool. While no Olympic berth is at stake in the Tehran tourney, the top five teams in the FIBA Asia Challenge Cup will earn an extra berth for their subzones (i.e. Southeast Asia for Philippines, Thailand, etc.) in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup. 

The team will also be without the services of naturalized center Andray Blatche, which could very well be a troubling sign given the Asian competition. It’s one thing for Belo and Tolomia to lead us to a SEABA crown (they had A LOT of help from PBA TNT rookie Troy Rosario), it’s another to ask and expect them to barrel through the likes of Iran, China, and Korea.

If we were to trim the above-mentioned pool to 12, our picks would be: Jalalon, Daquioag, Ravena, Tolomia, Ferrer, Parks, Belo, Escoto, Van Opstal, Wright, Ganuelas, and Erram.

Talk about perimeter-oriented.

Our best five? Ravena, Wright, Parks, Ganuelas and Belo. We would have Parks run the point, with Ravena as the token scorer, Wright the designated shooter, Ganuelas and Belo at the frontline. A small pairing, so we’d probably move Ganuelas to the bench and have Belo run with either Van Opstal (legit 6”9) or Erram (PBA experience).

So, can a five of Parks, Ravena, Wright, Belo and Van Opstal take on Iran? It’s going to be rough, specially if the Iranians choose to play physical all the way up at PG where we put Parks (who is not a fan of that style of play). China’s length will stifle any Gilas 5 combination, which does not have the strong-slasher Jayson Castro type to break down defenses. Korea? At the very least, our young guys should be able to switch on defense with little to no problems.

At the moment, the way the roster is built, the Dribble Drive Offense is the only way to go. Ravena and Tolomia are the chief go-to-guys, so they will need to be able to break down their defenders. Tolomia has a bad habit of turning the ball over during kick-out plays, while Ravena likes to take his time out in the perimeter. Daquioag is the sleeper here, since if he can pick up the offense right away and not be bothered by the opponent’s size and strength, he has a PCU Jayson Castro-like game in him.

The rest can wait their turn, get in position and knock down the three. Yes, we are looking at you Vosotros, Ferrer et. al. Belo’s going to be the default Ranidel de Ocampo of this lot, and he might get in trouble against bigger frontlines.  We just hope that the “vacation/training” that Van Opstal took is worth it, and that he has improved from when we saw him last.

Our hope here is that Ravena’s Drew League exposure brings out that “scorer” in him once again, and maybe make him more of a slasher rather than set-shooter/post player in the half-court. Also, for Parks to live up to expectations and show us what he learned in both the NBA D-League AND in his run with FIBA World Gilas.

Honestly, we just hope that Gilas 5 will be able to advance deep into the tournament. We are not expecting a medal finish, for as long as they look respectable out there and not get blown out entirely.
We got Wright on board, why couldn’t they throw in his buddy Jason Brickman? Or was there citizenship issues at play?

Also, if TNT was nice enough to let Ganuelas play, maybe they could’ve sent Moala Tautuaa as well so the young Fil-Tonggan could gain some more confidence and be that bully in the paint most expected him to be. Adding Rosario would be nice, but we’ll give him and TNT a pass since he’s their newest gem. Since Team MVP (TNT, Meralco, NLEX… Blackwater hihihi) doesn’t appear to have any problems sharing their younger guys, maybe next time we could have Cliff Hodge, Rabeh al Hussaini, Kevin Alas on board as well?

@kilikilishot