Questions still linger on what Gilas Pilipinas will look like come the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup.
The availability of Kai Sotto, Justine Baltazar, RJ Abarrientos, and Carl Tamayo is in question. By August, their mother teams and schools might begin their training for their upcoming tournaments. Meanwhile, Sotto is only committed to two tournaments — the Asia Cup Qualifiers and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
They could also add Thirdy Ravena, Juan Gomez de Liaño, and other players being recruited to Japan as the B.League season only begins on October.
Of course, the Ateneo boys and the PBA-Gilas draftees remain committed to the team.
But who will compose the rest of the squad?
For Gilas Pilipinas Men head coach and program director Tab Baldwin and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, they are still open to adding PBA players in the pool. This is if they can commit time to train for a long period of time with the national team.
“I think everyone has to realize that this is not a team, this is just a pool of players. So we select a roster when we have games facing us and confronting us. Other than that, we are a pool of players that are available for as long as they can make a time commitment that allows this coaching staff to build chemistry,” he told The Chasedown.
“If they can’t make the time commitment, it undermines the strength of this program which is chemistry of the team. I think everything hinges on that. It hinges on the player availability to not just show up, but to give meaningful time contribution to be part of the roster.”
The result of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers was a product of the team’s long preparation for it.
Gilas had been training on and off at Inspire Sports Academy since January. At one point, the pool even swelled up to almost 30 amateur players.
The problem, though, is that the PBA players will be in the midst of the 2021 Philippine Cup by then.
Still, as a national team, Baldwin remains inclusive to anyone who can commit to the demands of Gilas.
Photo from FIBA Asia Cup
“That’s something that we have to work on at that time. So we don’t really try to open or close the door at this point in time. There’s no point in doing that. We are a national team and we need all the talent to assemble that,” he said.
“We need to focus on building a team and not just individual talents.”
