Pool still alterable

Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

With the PBA and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas already having an agreement on how the cage body can gain the help of the pro league in putting up the national team, Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes made some very surprise selections in naming his 24-man pool on Sunday night.

The PBA has allowed Reyes to pick one player from each of its 12 teams that will join the 12 rookies picked from the Cadet pool in the last Draft.
They will be joined by Andray Blatche or a new naturalized player Reyes and his assistants are looking for as Gilas shoots for a place in the 2019 Fiba World Cup in China.

Reyes emphasized that age was a big consideration when he and his staff made the selections, but there were other young players who were left out because of the PBA-SBP agreement allowing Gilas to “draft” just one veteran from each PBA team.

Unlike in past Gilas squads where teams made multiple contributions, some veterans who are playing at a very high level were left out.

For the very first time in a long while, Gilas will be without Gabe Norwood and Ranidel de Ocampo, pillars of past national teams.

Troy Rosario, a PBA sophomore with TNT KaTropa, played in the last Gilas team that finished second to China in the Asian Championship in Changsha in 2015. But since Jason Castro, the region’s best point guard, was already selected to the pool, the former National University standout wasn’t available.

Reyes and SBP president Al Panlilio both said that this pool is not cast in stone, and that injuries to some of the players can alter the composition of the squad.

“It’s a work in progress,” Panlilio said on Sunday night when asked if Reyes could ultimately ask for more players depending on the need when the tournaments come.

Ricky Vargas, the governor of the TNT KaTropa in the PBA, readily made all of his players available in case Reyes sees the need.

“Basta para sa bayan, ready kami,” Vargas told the Inquirer over the phone Monday. “He (Reyes) can have as many as he wants from my team.”

This Gilas team will play a hectic qualifying tournament that starts in November for the World Cup.

But before that, Team PH will see action in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) on April 23 to 30 here, where the winner will get an outright berth to the Fiba Asia Cup in Beirut, Lebanon, in August.

The Seaba hosting rights was awarded to the Philippines on Monday.

Reyes and Panlilio said the idea is to field in the strongest possible lineup in each tournament because even the regional SEA championship “is not a sure ball for us (Filipinos) anymore.”

And their statement more or less guarantees that PBA teams will ultimately come to the rescue and lend their best players for flag and country.