Bringing in new players is easy but finding those who are great fit to the system of Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes is quite a challenge.
Reyes said it’s going to be quality over quantity in his formation of the team that will represent the country in the FIBA Basketball World Cup from 25 August to 10 September.
“We don’t want to go back and teaching. If we put somebody new in the program, it’s going to be back to square one for us,” said Reyes during the resumption of Gilas training on Thursday at the Meralco Gym in Pasig City.
“We’re kinda balancing that with the need to add players in or out so there’s a lot of considerations that we have to figure out.”
“It’s not as simple. We have a luxury of having a lot of players at our disposal, but right now, these are the people that are in the pool.”
The current Gilas pool is being hampered by injuries and absences.
Included in the list of no-shows are National Basketball Association star Jordan Clarkson, Kai Sotto and Jordan Heading, who is still treating his back injury in the United States.
Scottie Thompson, for his part, crashed with a finger injury during their training in Lithuania while Carl Tamayo completely withdrew from the initial 21-man pool to rest his body following a long and grueling campaign in Japan.
With that, Reyes met with Philippine Basketball Association chairperson Ricky Vargas of TNT Tropang Giga, board governor Alfrancis Chua of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al Panlilio about the possibility of jacking up the current pool.
Reyes, however, stressed that he is not inclined to inject the pool with fresh faces.
“We met with chairman Ricky Vargas and governor Al Chua right after we arrived late Monday evening and Tuesday lunch, we had a meeting. President (SBP) Al Panlilio was there as well as Coach Tim Cone,” Reyes said.
“Look at the number of players we have now, we have 16. We don’t want to add more, but we want to make sure that we put a plan together.”
Among those who showed up in their training restart were new additions in Roger Pogoy, Calvin Oftana and Ray Parks as well as mainstays Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu, who have already both recovered from their respective injuries.
Also attending the Gilas practice were naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, CJ Perez, Chris Newsome, Jamie Malonzo, Poy Erram, and brothers Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena.
Reyes added that they can easily add names if they want to but they want everybody to get familiar with the system.
“We named 21 people. Please take out that notion that people are going in and out. We can call Kevin Alas or Arvin Tolentino anytime or some other names. The only reason we’re naming people is that we can’t have 50 guys in training,” Reyes said.
“There’s no such thing as in and out. We can bring players even who are not part of the initial pool, Arvin or Marcio Lassiter. All those guys know that if we decide to call them, when the need arises, they’re going to be ready. We hope they’re going to be ready and other players as well.”
