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Photo credit: Inquirer.net

Following today's PBA All Star game featuring the Luzon All Stars vs Gilas Pilipinas selection; Gilas head coach Chot Reyes finally named his SEABA 12 man line-up which will defend homecourt this coming May 12 to 18.

The 12 men are: Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar, Raymond Almazan, Andray Blatche, Junemar Fajardo, Jio Jalalon, Allein Maliksi, RR Pogoy, Terrence Romeo, Troy Rosario, Jayson Castro William and Matthew Wright.

Honestly, we love this nice mix of youth, spunk and skill, moving forward. There were a lot of question marks surrounding some of the names that were included in the pool-- primarily because Gilas was "limited" by the "1 player per PBA team" mandate, but Coach Chot was still able to form what we feel is quite a competitive line-up that can even go as far as competing in the next FIBA tournament.



PG
Jayson Castro - the undisputed best PG in Asia. There's a reason why Coach Chot asked Castro to "unretire" from Gilas duty.

Jio Jalalon - a triple double threat on the floor who has the strength to bang with stronger, bigger guards. Don't expect to see him play heavy minutes, but don't be surprised if he delivers strong performances either.

SG
Terrence Romeo - he's still far from being where Castro is IMHO, but as a scorer, there's noone better than Romeo one-on-one in the whole country.

RR Pogoy - a two-way player with good size, familiarity with the DDO and a knack for doing a lot of the little things that wins games.

SF
Matthew Wright - let's just put it this way: he's won both MVPs for the 2 ASGs played so far.

Calvin Abueva - we expect The Beast to provide energy off the bench for Gilas, and even see him playing 1 in bursts.

Allein Maliksi - floor spacer, shot-maker. He'll get a lot of open looks with Blatche, Fajardo and Aguilar packing the paint. Basically, he's the 2017 Gary David

PF

Japeth Aguilar - Coach Chot will lean on Aguilar's improved play to really boost his DDO. This way, the floor is spaced a lot better without giving up any speed on defense. It's a bit of an overkill, considering the ASEAN competition, but it's better this way.

Troy Rosario - Should Aguilar need a breather, Rosario's proven to be a solid stretch 4 in international tourneys so far and even dominated in the previous tourney

C
Andray Blatche - overkill.

Junmar Fajardo - the Great Equalizer. Should we run into some trouble (unlikely), Coach Chot can always go Fajardo-Blatche and just kill the competition.

Raymond Almazan - This team is so big and skilled, Almazan can even slide down to 4 and or camp outside and take 3s.

All things considered, this team is arguably one of the best ever assembled skills-wise. They don't have the starpower like Coach Chot's former Gilas teams, but IMHO, skills-wise, this is a faster, taller, more versatile squad with a lot of firepower from the outside.