Reyes ‘very pleased’ upon seeing future of Gilas at practice

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes didn’t waste time integrating the young guns to the national team program as he immediately threw them into the fire with the veterans on Monday.

“We purposely are making them do things quickly because we’re trying to see who can pick it up very quickly. We had runs, sets, and put them in the schemes we do with the veterans,” he said after wrapping up practice at Meralco Gym.

Thirteen of the 23 names in Reyes’ wish list attended the resumption of the Gilas Pilipinas practices.

Thirdy Ravena, CJ Perez, and Robert Bolick bannered the “23-for-23” attendees. They were joined by Isaac Go, Paul Desiderio, J-jay Alejandro, Javee Mocon, Juan Gomez De Liaño, Jeo Ambohot, Kemark Cariño, and Will Gozum. Arvin Tolentino and Joshua Sinclair were also present but were in street clothes.

Reyes admitted he has high expectations from the upstarts, and so far, he wasn’t disappointed with what he saw from his new recruits.

“I was very pleased with the kind of engagement that I saw,” he said. “They’re the best of the best. They’re the cream of the crop, so they need to be very quick in picking things up. That’s why were trying to do these things.”

Reyes likes the potential upon seeing the future of national team converge.

“We have to start somewhere. That’s our dream for Philippine basketball for the longest time. Now, we’re starting with that vision in mind to have tall players who can play, run, and shoot at the same time,” he said.

“They were chosen all for their shooting ability. Every single guy that we picked has to have a shot, even the bigs. Everyone is very comfortable stepping in the three and shooting it, and that’s what we’re looking for, the ones that can shoot the long ball and still have the height.”

And Reyes expects the kids to continue honing their craft as they will be working with the current Gilas Pilipinas crew in the coming weeks.

“For now, that’s the plan. Until we can come up with a more regular, more definite schedule, as I’ve said, this is far from fixed,” he said.

“All we want is to start this [with the cadets]. Done is better than perfect. This is far from a perfect plan, but at least, we got it done, we got it started. I think its important for those kids also to know that we are looking. Like we say, many are called but only few will be chosen.”