Gilas wraps up ‘best practice yet’

Gilas Pilipinas practice. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin doesn’t say it often, but on Thursday, the stern coach was glad to note the national team’s intensity has finally picked up.

“It’s our best practice yet,” he said after wrapping up the session at Meralco Gym.

“I think the intensity was there. I thought Dray (Blatche) came in with a lot of intensity today. We sort of followed him a little bit. He lifted the level of energy and intensity and I think other players have to step up and do that as well. We have to do it vocally and not just by example.”

Baldwin was so satisfied with the way his team ran that he really believes that Gilas Pilipinas took a big step forward when it came to the team’s build-up for the upcoming Fiba Olympic qualifiers.

“I can’t say that I’ve always felt this way after practice sessions, but today, I definitely did.”

Though the squad still missed the services of Marcio Lassiter (bronchitis), and only got limited minutes for Jeff Chan (groin) and Ryan Reyes (achilles), Baldwin is happy that the team is following the lead of Blatche in these daily practices.

The naturalized center is likewise finally getting his groove, jelling with the rest of the locals with just a month to go before the qualifiers.

“Andray’s a very smart basketball player and with him, it’s always a matter of getting out of his system – whatever he learned in the last system that he played in – and just starting to feel comfortable. He makes that adjustment very quickly,” Baldwin said.

The mentor is confident that Blatche and the rest of the team will perform at their best for the OQT.

“We have to be patient with all the players. They’ve come out of their PBA teams; They’ve come out of different systems and there is a settling-in period. But I think being professionals and veteran players, they go through that pretty quickly,” he said.