Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin admitted that some of his players were ‘out of sync’ during their stint in the King Abdullah Cup in Jordan a couple of weeks ago, but that’s mainly because of the short time they had with the team.
Thirdy Ravena, Matt Nieto, Dave Ildefonso, and Rey Suerte were the ones who returned to the national team after being away for some time, with the three of them having just recovered from the injuries they suffered last June.
Nieto sustained a broken hand, while Ildefonso got a deep bone bruise in his foot. And days after that update by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, Suerte sprained his ankle during practice at the Inspire Academy in Calamba.
Ravena, meanwhile, wasn’t included in the pool since he had just wrapped up his first season with San-en NeoPhoenix in the Japan B.League.
Ravena averaged 5.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists; Suerte normed 5.2 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists; Ildefonso put up 4.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.2 assists; and Nieto had 2.2 points, 0.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists averages.
So, those four missed out on playing in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers’ third window in Clark, as well as the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Serbia.
“Those four guys only really had four and a half days of preparation in the very short bubble we had before we left [for the King Abdullah Cup], and it was evident,” Baldwin told Radyo5’s Power and Play, Saturday.
“Especially for Matt, especially for Thirdy, who hadn’t had much preparation at all with the team. They were really out of sync.”
But as the week-long tournament in Amman progressed, Baldwin was pleased with how Ravena and Nieto improved.
Gilas played a total of seven games there. Excluding its non-bearing exhibition versus Jordan-B which they won, the Filipino cagers amassed a 2-6 record, finishing fourth after bowing to Tunisia in the battle for third.
The Nationals previously beat the 2017 AfroBasket gold medalists in the elimination round through a thrilling 74-73 overtime victory, thanks to the split from the foul line by Ravena with 9.1 seconds left to play.
“Dave and Rey weren’t away as long as Matt and Thirdy were and they probably integrated themselves a little bit better. But by the end of the tournament, we were seeing improvements from Matt and Thirdy,” he said.
“But at the beginning of the tournament they didn’t look good and they knew that,” added the straightforward mentor.
Baldwin understands the sentiments of some with how Ravena and his fellow returnees have fared in the recent meet. But this particular situation, he said, only proves his point that time with the team is extremely important.
The decorated bench tactician has always emphasized as much when it comes to building national teams, saying that a player, no matter how good they are, needs to spend a significant amount of time to integrate better with Gilas.
“I just think it highlights the fact… What I’ve been saying is, if we wanna bring new players in, they need to have a considerable amount of time with the team,” he told the program hosted by former PBA commissioner Noli Eala.
“So, time together is critical. And anybody that thinks we can just bring star players in at the last minute and expect that to be an addition to the team, they’re wrong. They will be a subtraction to the team,” he added.
“I don’t care how good those players are. They may be a star for the team but they won’t actually help the team perform better as a team.”
