All Ineligible/ Anti-Gilas

#whatif Anti-Gilas
(Photo credit Sports5.ph)

While we await the official announcement of Coach Chot Reyes’ Gilas 24-man pool (with the 12 former Gilas cadets already shoo-ins), here is an interesting thought: why not create a “practice team” of “FIBA ineligible” PBA players who are also, mostly, Gilas-caliber?

We are not trying to create any drama here, just that we feel that these guys could readily give Gilas a run for its money considering their overall talent and global experience pre-PBA.  Just to make it even more interesting, we would want maybe Coach Norman Black or Tim Cone to handle this roster:

Alex Cabagnot
Chris Ross
Stanley Pringle
Chris Newsome
Chris Banchero

Sol Mercado
Cliff Hodge
Joe DeVance
Moala Tautuaa
Jay Washington (eligible but we're running out of bigs)
Asi Taulava (eligible but we just need a center)
Mick Pennisi (same as above)

Wow. Just wow. If you took the former Gilas teams minus Andray Blatche/ Marcus Douthit, we feel that the above roster could beat them even on their best day.

Our starting five would be:

Cabagnot – point guard extraordinaire with legit 3-point shooting
Mercado – power slasher to break down defenses
Newsome – do-it-all O/D forward who can finish on the break
DeVance – point forward who can post-up or snipe from outside
Taulava – banger

then comes:

Ross – stopper, point guard
Pringle – designated scorer
Banchero – point forward, defense
Hodge – weak side rebounder, energy guy
Pennisi – three point shooting/ floor spacer for guards

Wow. Just wow. Think of the possibilities if some of the guys above were able to suit up for Gilas. There are even more who are playing in Europe, ABL, and NBA D-League, even the NBA (Jordan Clarkson), who are of legit Filipino-foreign heritage but are unfortunately ineligible.

Of course, if the PBA and SBP ever did pull the trigger on this one AND they end up playing for real AND beating up Gilas, it will definitely not look good for both brands. Gilas will look weak, while the FIBA ineligible guys (and their fans) will keep going #whatif which will then affect the overall support for the national team.

But yeah, #whatif.