Losing Scottie Thompson — an essential piece of Gilas Pilipinas’ program — is definitely a big blow for Gilas Pilipinas that is currently in deep preparation for the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Thompson is now beginning to reach the peak of his career after completing his finest season in the Philippine Basketball Association.
In fact, he just won his first Most Valuable Player award and made a good run for back-to-back Best Player of the Conference award in which he duked it out with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel teammate Christian Standhardinger.
At Gilas, Thompson has been bringing his all-around value to make a strong case for the World Cup roster.
Four years ago, he came so close to making it but was left out of the final 12 despite being able to join in some window tournaments leading to the event.
The coming World Cup would have been a perfect opportunity for the 6-foot-1 Thompson to make it to the biggest basketball spectacle in the world.
But disaster struck and he suffered a right metacarpal fracture during their training camp in Lithuania.
Thompson’s injury is similar to that of Calvin Oftana, which sidelined him for six to eight weeks while playing for NLEX in the PBA last year.
With that, Thompson might miss another opportunity to join Gilas and has to wait for another four-year cycle before seeing action in the World Cup.
After all, Gilas cannot afford to have someone who is not fit to play and it will not be ideal for Thompson to be in the roster now until the next six to eight weeks.
A total of 14 players joined the World Cup hopefuls in their European training camp, first in Estonia and then later on in LIthuania, including Thompson.
Thompson was joined by fellow PBA stars June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Jamie Malonzo, CJ Perez, Chris Newsome, Poy Erram and naturalized player Justin Brownlee, Japan B. League stars Dwight Ramos, Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena, Korean Basketball League sensation Rhenz Abando and another naturalized player, Ange Kouame, who just graduated from Ateneo.
Aside from Thompson, another player that was hardly utilized was AJ Edu, a 6-foot-10 Filipino-Cypriot, who came to the training camp nursing an ankle sprain that he suffered during a training session in Brisbane.
Once Gilas wrap up their European training, expect some tweaking to be made as the coaching staff will have to make decisions on bringing in additional players to widen the pool.
It’s painful to see Thompson just sitting on the bench and he could not do anything but throw in his support to the rest of the members on the sidelines, but it’s only logical that his spot should be taken by players who are already familiar with the system.
For me, the most logical choice is Oftana, a 6-foot-5 forward who can play both forward spots.
A calf injury he suffered in Gilas’ opening game against Malaysia in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games sidelined Oftana the rest of the tournament and went home early.
He was supposed to rejoin the Gilas training camp in Manila and at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna, but he had to attend to family matters in Cagayan de Oro as his wife was about to give birth to their first baby.
Oftana has recovered from the injury and is now waiting for the possibility of another call-up.
Several PBA players might also be included in the pool as Gilas officials and coaching staff will sit down and talk to league commissioner Willie Marcial in lending additional players. These players will be available as the league is currently in its off season, although there’s an On Tour preseason event going on.
But if there’s someone who could ably take the spot of Thompson, Oftana, a new PBA champion, to my mind, is the most logical choice.
As for Edu, whether his health condition can get better remains to be seen, but once Kai Sotto and Jordan Clarkson join the mix, then it would be easier to figure out what to do next.
