Gilas Pilipinas displayed a glimpse of its future despite failing to advance to the knockout stages of the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said he is excited over what the future holds for the national squad, especially with how 23-year-old AJ Edu and 21-year-old Kai Sotto played against the world’s best players.
Edu was a revelation.
The 6-foot-10 Filipino-Cypriot showed up in training nursing a swollen ankle but delivered a strong impact for Gilas as he emerged as the third best leading scorer with 8.2 points and leading rebounder with 8.6 a game despite being the second youngest player in the roster.
“Like Dwight (Ramos), AJ was so good that I couldn’t get him out of the court,” Reyes said in an interview.
“He was supposed to be a spread four. Sometimes, he doesn’t want to take shots. But it’s okay. For as long as he plays well, I don’t have a problem with that.”
Despite his late inclusion due to a nagging back injury, Sotto also had some flashes of brilliance, averaging 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 14 minutes of play in five matches. He played his best game in their last classification game against China in which he posted 12 points and six rebounds.
“The future of the team is bright. With AJ and Kai, we don’t need any big man in the next 10 years,” said Reyes, whose son, Josh, also handles the youth program of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.
“At the same time, Josh also has a pipeline of talent in his program aside from some collegiate players like Mason Amos and Jerom Lastimosa. So if we’re talking about quality players, we really have a lot.”
Reyes, however, stressed that the young stars should be given international exposure.
“They should be sent to the SEA (Southeast Asian) Games. We should use it as a developmental tournament,” Reyes, who made it clear that he is walking away from the national team program, said.
“If not in the SEA Games, where else will our young players compete? We should use the SEA Games as a developmental tournament to expose and train our young players.”
In the past, the SBP was sending collegiate players to the biennial meet.
But with other teams in the region like Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand slowly catching up, the SBP decided to send an all-professional team when the country hosted the Games in 2019.
The strategy backfired when Gilas lost the title to Indonesia in 2021 before bowing to perennial cellar-dweller Cambodia in the previous edition of the SEA Games in Phnom Penh.
