So far, RJ Abarrientos and SJ Belangel have been lighting up the Korean Basketball League.
Abarrientos, who is playing for Ulsan Hyundai Mobis, is averaging 17.2 points (7th in the league), 7.8 assists (3rd in the league), and 1.8 steals per game.
Belangel of Daegu KOGAS, meanwhile, is norming 10.6 points and 3.0 assists per contest.
Many are wondering why Gilas Men program director Chot Reyes did not include the duo that has been a mainstay in Tab Baldwin’s iteration of the program in the pool for Window 5 despite the KBL having an international break.
But Reyes already knows what the two can bring after handling them in the FIBA Asia Cup. It’s just that he wants to also handle the likes of Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson and San Miguel CJ Perez first and see how they would fare under his system.
“I have two games with Scottie Thompson pa lang and now, we are looking forward to having CJ Perez in the mix,” he said on PSC Chairman Noli Eala’s Power & Play. “When you do that, some guys have to take a backseat muna para makita muna natin how these guys are doing.
“As much as we want to, hindi puwedeng lahat sila nandoon. That’s what we are looking at right now.”
Under Reyes, Abarrientos averaged 3.3 points in 5.3 minutes per ballgame while Belangel played an average of 18.8 minutes for norms of 8.5 points and 2.0 assists.
Photo from FIBA Asia Cup
“We all know what RJ can do, what SJ Belangel can do, and all of those guys. Now, it’s time to take a look at the others,” he continued.
Still, Reyes stressed that everyone is still included in the pool for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
But for the last two windows, Reyes is hoping to see all the players available and make them compete in an international setting to gauge who will make the final pool for 2023.
“All of the pool members are still on the radar. But for now, we want to go to take a look at the guys that we have currently, the guys who are practicing now kasi sila ‘yung nagpa-practice na eh,” he said.
“We want to take a look at that.”
