Gilas Pilipinas head coach Yeng Guiao has already accepted the fact that the Nationals might not be able to join the 2019 William Jones Cup in Taiwan this June — nor any other international tournament, as the tournament will collide with the PBA’s schedule.
Guiao wants Gilas to join the annual, 10-day tournament so as to prepare his wards for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China this August, but that might not push through as it will mean yet another long break for the pro league.
The PBA has already stretched out its calendar for 2019 to give way for the Worlds and for the SEA Games that will be held here this November.
“I’ve been briefed by boss Al Panlilio after the PBA board meeting that the chances of us joining the Jones Cup in preparation for the World Cup is really very slim,” said Guiao after the PBA’s recognition of Gilas, Sunday in Antipolo.
Another thing that Guiao has accepted is the fact that Andray Blatche won’t be suiting up as an import in the PBA anytime soon — that idea had been the initial plan so that the naturalized center will just be closer once the preps start.
“I’ve already indicated previously that in order to keep him close and in order to be able to have some control in his conditioning, it would have been good if he’s been able to stay in the Philippines before the World Cup and play for the PBA. But it seems that there are some technical issues with that,” Guiao said.
“Number one, we’re not sure about the height. Number two, we’re not sure where he’s going to.”
But given all the roadblocks, for now, Guiao said that he’s open to other means of preparing Gilas, who are entering the global basketball spectacle for the second straight time, or since they went into the 2014 World Cup in Spain.
“I’m open to other formulas to prepare the team.
“And the other option given to us was just to play some friendly matches with teams that are not in our group or organize pocket tournaments. So open naman ako doon. We don’t know yet specifically kung ano pa, ano yung mangyayari, but those are the options given to us. So from here, we will keep talking to the PBA and the SBP,” he expressed.
However, Guiao would like to have much longer preparations this time around.
“We really don’t want what we’ve been doing the past three windows, yung sa akin, yung tatlong windows, was really just preparing two to three weeks at a time. So napakaiklinung three weeks na yun. We would want to be able to prepare at least two months,” Guiao hopes.
“Instead of two to three weeks, maybe we can stretch it to two to three months.”
