Baldwin on trimming Gilas roster down to 12: pic.twitter.com/XHfD1D162S
— LVJ (@levijoshua) July 1, 2016
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin opened up on having to trim the national team’s roster down to its final 12 members during a practice session on Thursday night.
“It seems fine. I read that when you make the cut to your roster, it’s not just the players that are left out and are affected and it’s everybody else. That’s true because when you spend the time together like we did, a bond is formed. When you break that bond in anyway, it’s tough for anybody,” Baldwin said.
As he said on the video above, Baldwin also pointed out that every team, and not just Gilas, has to go through the process of cutting down the roster to just 12 players, as it is part of the rules of international competition.
“Calvin (Abueva) and LA (Tenorio) are very close to these guys as they always have been. They are close to the coaching staff. We all feel the impact of that. It’s very unpleasant but there’s just no way we can cram 14 into 12. We are talking about rules of the game, it’s a process every team has to go through,” Baldwin said, adding both Abueva and Tenorio still have chances to make the team as replacements.
“Nobody looks forward to it, nobody enjoys it, everybody feels the impact of it, but you know, as the days pass, and we settle into who we are with these 12, hopefully we stay healthy, but if we don’t we know we have those guys that can come back for us.”
