TNT is shaking up its coaching staff for the coming Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup with cage great Jojo Lastimosa taking a more active role in his dual role as interim coach and team manager.
Lastimosa will take the lead role in the coaching staff amid the inclusion of Serbian strategist, Lale Gorunovic, who will become a team consultant.
A member of Alaska’s grand slam team in 1996, Lastimosa assured that the current setup will be much different from the previous arrangement the Tropang Giga had when Mark Dickel was an active coaching consultant with Bong Ravena serving as interim coach for two seasons.
The previous arrangement saw Dickel mostly calling the shots from the sidelines.
It’s not going to be the same when Lastimosa begins calling the shots.
“I told them that if the set up will be just like the Mark Dickel-Bong Ravena situation, then I don’t want to be a part of it,” said Lastimosa in a telephone conversation with Daily Tribune.
“In our set up, I’ll be the one calling the plays, making diagrams, asking timeouts and doing the substitutions, things that a regular coach does for a team. But when it comes to game plan, collectively the coaches will work in preparing for our games.”
Lastimosa added that this will be the coaching structure until such time the Serian coach gets to know the players more.
The new coaching scheme at TNT will allow head mentor Chot Reyes, also the Gilas Pilipinas coach, to prepare for the World Cup this year where the Philippines co-host the event with two other countries — Japan and Indonesia.
Before the World Cup, Gilas will also see action in the sixth and final window of the World Cup Asian Qualifiers, hence the need for Reyes to focus his attention more in preparing the national team.
But in between the coaching changes, Lastimosa will continuously play the role as team manager of TNT.
“I’ll be playing dual roles for the squad,” said Lastimosa, adding that the team will have a two-week camp in Calamba starting next week once the Tropang Giga are complete.
The team still awaits Mikey and Kelly Williams as well as import, Jalen Hudson, a young player and veteran in the European Leagues circuit.
