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| Who's going to wear our blue and red for SMART Gilas 2? |
As per reports, there's a huge possibility that SMART Gilas 1 head coach, Serbian Rajko Toroman may not be brought back at the helm and that a "coaching carousel" is in the offing-- delayed only by a certain collegiate team's "Drive for Five" campaign next season. Names being thrown out there include Norman Black, Chot Reyes and Ryan Gregorio-- funny that another Team MVP backed coach, Frankie Lim, hasn't made the shortlist (which is great because he's a threat to trigger an all out, international on or off court melee/ Asian Wars).
And while we all await the coaching debacle to cease and that players' names be made public, this writer feels that the next SMART Gilas should be at least a 20 man pool regardless much like how Coach K handled Team USA. 15 "right now" players and another 15 "future" players trained both at the same time and battling for spots.
Right now, with the PBA all-set to back up SG2, here's this writer's revised wish list:
PBA 15
PG Ryan Reyes
- defense, hustle and all the kanto-style gulang you could ever dream of
SG James Yap
- there's a difference between a scorer and a star, and Yap, as WWE John Cena-ish as he may be to some fans, makes shots when it matters
SF Arwind Santos
- strictly on defense and breakaway slams, no room for ill-advised threes here
PF Kelly Williams
- hustle, defense, heart
C Marcus Douthit (that's IF he hasn't signed with a Euro team by then)
- you know what he can do
PG Jayson Castro
- speed, change of tempo for Team Pinas, grit and Pinoy heart
SG Chris Lutz
- textbook SG
SF Jay Washington
- when he's not the main man of a team, this guy is actually pretty good
PF Joe DeVance
- versatile big will always come in handy
C Sonny Thoss
- banger, rebounder
PG Alex Cabagnot
- the best point guard on offense in the PBA today
SG Jeffrei Chan
- name a better 3 point shooter than Chan and PBA-online.net will dismiss it by showing you their 3 pt %s
SF Marcio Lassiter
- defense, slashing skills and swag
PF Beau Belga
- multi-talented big man who can shoot and cannot be boxed out of the paint without the other guy getting hurt
C Doug Kramer
- textbook big man who boxes out, rebounds and drains 15-18 ft Js
Development Pool- since the guys above are still around their 20s anyway:
PG Kiefer Ravena
- give him more time at the PG and he'll go down as one of the best. Ever.
SG Rayray Parks Jr
- needs time to develop and bulk up
SF Cliff Hodge
- athletic, hustles but still raw
PF Dave Marcelo
- pang PBA kung manggulang sa poste
PF Junmar Fajardo
- haven't seen enough, but at least he can make free throws
C Greg Slaughter
- sometimes he dunks on people's heads, others, he coasts.
This writer, a fan of old school Pinoy basketball, was torn if he should include San Sebastian's mighty Calvin Abueva. As you know, the former NCAA MVP is somewhere below 6"5 and strictly plays power forward for the Stags which is why he wasn't in the "dream list." We've seen this kind of "beastly" performances before, from another Stags MVP-- Jam Alfad. Same game, if not, Alfad had better basketball IQ, but his career went nowhere after we all saw that he's just another undersized 4 and didn't have the footspeed to move to the 3 spot. Sigh.
As for legends Jimmy Alapag and Asi Taulava, give the guys their props for carrying us through the years. But it's high time that today's generation carried the dream/ fight.
Who do you think should be called for a SMART Gilas tryout?
PS
For Pete's sake, no more extended minutes for Chris Tiu (who this writer believes and is willing to bet on will be included, nay, pencilled into the SG2 roster).
