Gilas Pilipinas’ criteria for potential players, who can fit the program and grow as international basketball players, includes those who have an ‘advanced understanding’ of the game.
And national team program director Tab Baldwin feels proud to have found some prospects. They are even part of the pool currently training with other Filipino dribblers at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
Those players are Far Eastern University’s RJ Abarrientos and Ateneo de Manila University point guard SJ Belangel.
“There’s a certain criterion that we look at in international basketball players,” the decorated mentor told The Game on One PH, Monday night. “We’re looking for length in players, and we’re looking for intangibles.
“We’re looking for, let’s say, an advanced understanding of the game. And I’ll give you two good examples: RJ Abarrientos, who is really not a big player, about five-foot-11; and SJ Belangel who’s six-foot.”
Abarrientos and Belangel may be young, but both already have experience on the international stage. The latter, for instance, was part of the Batang Gilas crew that competed in the 2015 FIBA U-16 Championships.
The nephew of all-time great Johnny Abarrientos, on the other hand, has played in the FIBA 3×3 U-23 World Cup in 2018.
According to Baldwin, they may not have their ideal physique, but they more than makeup for that with their IQ. He even sees the two in the mold of Gilas Men cornerstone Kiefer Ravena.
“These two guys are not really the physical prototypes we’re looking for. But they are sort of around a Kiefer Ravena model, you know, who’s a very, very clever basketball player who reads the game extremely well,” he said.
“Both RJ and SJ are cut from the same mold. So what they might lack in elite talent, they make up for in, you know, a basketball IQ that’s very advanced.
“So in the international game — because it is not an overly athletic game; it is a very, very intellectual game — a player like that can fit in even if they are physically a little bit inferior,” he continued.
Still, Baldwin did not leave out the guys who provide the length they have been looking for, led by De La Salle University big man Justine Baltazar and incoming University of the Philippines freshman Carl Tamayo.
There are also the likes of Blue Eagles Geo Chiu, Troy Mallilin, Gilas draftee Tzaddy Rangel, and Ateneo High standout Lebron Lopez, to name some.
“We’re looking for length in players like… Justine Baltazar is a great example of what we’re looking for. And then the guys that have that IQ where the game comes easy to them in spite of their physical assets or deficiencies.”
