The presence of Ange Kouame raises the level of play of June Mar Fajardo in the Gilas Pilipinas squad that will see action in the 19th Asian Games.
Gilas coach Tim Cone said Kouame has been pushing Fajardo to the limit, making him look good when the Filipinos shoot for the Asian Games title starting 26 September in Hangzhou.
Gilas had already started their training this week. They are set to hold a camp at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna before facing the Changwon LG Sakers of Korea in a friendly match on 22 September.
“Just being here to combat against June Mar every day, collisions of two mountains going against each other,” Cone said after witnessing the jockeying for position between 6-foot-10 Kouame and 6-foot-10 Fajardo in the shaded lanes.
“It’s good for June Mar to have that kind of body going up against him. It makes June Mar better.”
During his early days at the Gilas program, Fajardo used to battle naturalized player Marcus Douthit in practice. When the 6-foot-11 Douthit left, he was replaced by 6-foot-11 Andray Blatche, who was versatile enough to play inside and outside.
But Fajardo had improved since then, blossoming into a six-time Philippine Basketball Association Most Valuable Player and arguably the most dominant inside force of this generation.
Still, Cone believes that the presence of Kouame further boosts Fajardo.
“Ange leads a lot to us,” Cone said.
“Number one, he’s a really strong guy. He’s a tremendous rebounder, screener, and he’s good around the basket and defensively, he can switch out on smaller players, which makes us a lot more versatile defensively.”
Kouame’s presence also guaranteed Gilas of a naturalized player at their disposal, pending the return of Justin Brownlee in peak form.
Brownlee has been working out with the squad but couldn’t play longer than expected as he needs to know how his body would react after undergoing operation to remove bone spurs on his foot.
“He’s doing alright,” said Cone, referring to Brownlee’s condition.
“He’s kinda in and out of the game. We’re very conscious of resting him, making sure we don’t overuse him coming from surgery.”
“He does what he can do, then he pops out and comes back in. This is kinda expected and we expect this in a week or two. But come near our first game, he’ll be close to 100 percent.”
