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Philippines Senior National Team Thread Vol. V

ccharmed said:
  • Kai Sotto: 7'3" (87")
  • June Mar Fajardo: 6'10" (82")
  • AJ Edu: 6'10" (82")
  • Quentin Millora-Brown: 6'10" (82")
  • Carl Tamayo: 6'7" (79")
  • Justin Brownlee: 6'5" (77")
  • Kevin Quiambao: 6'5" (77")
  • Dwight Ramos: 6'4" (76")
  • Jaime Malonzo: 6'4" (76")
  • Juan Gomez de Liaño: 6'0" (72")
  • Scottie Thompson: 6'1" (73")
  • RJ Abarrientos: 5'11" (71")
Good strong team. Hepa, 6'9", can replace malonzo at sf, and the team becomes a team solid in all frontline positions.

Abarrientos is not particularly reliable, but because the first two nz-au games are in the philippines, he might be able to deliver. Anyway, thompson and de liano are reliable at point so nothing is really lost.

Why is kouame still not considered a local player!? He is practically in the philippines his entire gaming life.
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Wait, is Kamaka Hepa really FIBA eligible? I thought the early news that he's eligible was an inaccurate one.

In case Hepa turns out to be eligible and is interested in playing for us, I think solid na solid na tayo sa 4 spot with either Bennie Boatwright or JB & Carl Tamayo. I just hope Hepa can play decent defense to cover for Boatwright's defensive deficiency.
 
It is impossible to defeat australia without the oxymoronic big small forwards. You need the size, mobility and relatvely decent 2-way performance of at least hepa and boatwright.

Tamayo has proven himself against the koreans. Against the japanese not so much. The korean coach allows tamayo to attack hard whenever he can. Japanese coach stupidly didnt. Only brownlee is licensed to freely kill under clueless cone. (To be fair, cone stagnated in coaching like other coaches in the pba, which is well below the quality of european and north american leagues. What is the record of cone in fiba games again?)

But both tamayo and quiambo are unproven warriors against the size, quickness and ferocity of world top ten forwards. Even brownlee, who is rather too old now, cant run with gazelle big small forwards anymore.

As for guards, ours are reasonably competent. But those who can reliably shoot and physically defend highly athletic foreign guards like thompson, de liano and parks are must haves.

Is dylan harper of san antonio spurs a legit local? He can be the younger pinoy brownlee replacement. With him around, kouame can at least play as np, particularly for the many times kai likely cannot play. If kouame ( and/or malick diouf) qualifies as local, goodbye old and slow jmf na siguro.

As for cone, he needs to seriously retool. Games against elite international teams require different sets of playbooks. Despite the "chemistry" within his ginebra team, his plays with this team will be completely destroyed in nt games, as elite teams are solid with ten excellent players. Now, who in his ginebra team have the capabilities of being internationally excellent?

Having only about 5 internationally excellent players in a national team doesnt even work anymore, as the usa team painfully realized.
 
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ccharmed said:
  • Kai Sotto: 7'2" (86")
  • June Mar Fajardo: 6'10" (82")
  • AJ Edu: 6'10" (82")
  • Quentin Millora-Brown: 6'10" (82")
  • Carl Tamayo: 6'7" (79")
  • Justin Brownlee: 6'5" (77")
  • Kevin Quiambao: 6'5" (77")
  • Dwight Ramos: 6'4" (76")
  • Jaime Malonzo: 6'4" (76")
  • Juan Gomez de Liaño: 6'0" (72")
  • Scottie Thompson: 6'1" (73")
  • RJ Abarrientos: 5'11" (71")
Good strong team. Hepa, 6'9", can replace malonzo at sf, and the team becomes a team solid in all frontline positions.

Abarrientos is not particularly reliable, but because the first two nz-au games are in the philippines, he might be able to deliver. Anyway, thompson and de liano are reliable at point so nothing is really lost.

Why is kouame still not considered a local player!? He is practically in the philippines his entire gaming life.
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I would replace RJ with Panopio. We need a point guard with good game management. Scottie under Tim Cone is untouchable.
 
IPC said:
When I observed Bennie in the PBA, his interior defense was poor, but he was decent at rotations.

But honestly, we should be thankful that we have Kai, AJ, and QMB are eligible rim protector centers, and all are in the pool.
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That's the edge of a Dray Blatche over a Bennie Boatwright - defense. Though when he played in the NBA, suspect rin yung defense ni Blatche, but in Asia basketball level, Blatche defensive skills was enough.

And of course Blatche was a walking mismatch in Asian basketball in the last decade. Blatche can dribble like a natural wingman which enabled him to dribble drive too often. Paano mo ba naman mapigilan yung isang driving 6-foot-10 big guy who is built like a bear? And of course, Blatche can also hit from 3.
 
Yeah. Dray was the best Asian bigman during his prime Gilas years. Too bad Chinese cheating deprived him of an Olympic stint.
 
Local pinoy na ba si phillips? He speaks pinoy better than most housemaids. He has the athleticism, size and aggression to be an internationalist and local hepa. His dribbling and 3point shooting is mediocre though which means he cant be used as the powerful spear in the sf position.

Gilas badly needs a big small forward, as mentioned by jamskie and live-evil, like blatche.

It also needs the wicked desperation of an international coach like ron jacobs who wont mind begging stealing and borrowing or whatever it takes to win. Jacobs is very good at real-time coaching, when fortune favors the ones who can do minute-by-minute adjustment best.

And why is lefou still not including rhenz abando??? He is far more reliable than newsome and perez, and has the explosive offense and defense exactly needed for international balling. If there is still some sanity in the sbp, inclusion of abando -- a real pinoy mj -- should be another must. Or what about parks in the final 12? Again, there is no way newsome, perez or abarrientos can contribute better than him.

Lefou keeps talking about players who fit the "system". His loss-win record proves his imbalanced "system" and choice of players do not fit international high-level basketball.

Pagcor is the better basketball sponsor than pba teams. It certainly knows how to win games, and game the system to win. Best of all pagcor can athletically rebuild and train nts longer, and pinoy gamers will not mind supporting the pinoys favorite sport.

Pagcor had a net income of 14.32 billion pesos in first 9 months of 2025. It transferred 38.1 billion to the national government during the first half of 2025.
 
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live_evil said:
Yeah. Dray was the best Asian bigman during his prime Gilas years. Too bad Chinese cheating deprived him of an Olympic stint.
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Blatche was very very hard to defend against becoz he isn't your traditional post-up, back-to-the-basket big man. Blatche is a facing-the-basket type of a big guy that thrives on dribble drives plus he can also hit it from trey. In defending Blatche, the defender has to chase him in the perimeter to prevent him from taking open looks from the 3pt area, pero hindi rin naman pweding masyadong dumikit ang defender becoz Blatche is going to blow by the defender. If you put your big guy to defend Blatche, that big guy won't have the mobility & laterals to chase Blatche in the perimeter. Pag nilagay mo naman na defender kay Blatche is yung small forward or wingman mo, Blatche may just post up & overpower the small defender.
 
It's good that Bennie was able to make up for his bad first game in KBL but another question now is how will his defense be affected by the repaired Achilles? He was not much of a defender IRC. He was tall and somewhat mobile but he could not keep up with other imports. Even those not known to be scorers. And as said he was not much of a rim protector considering his height.
 
Rds said:
It's good that Bennie was able to make up for his bad first game in KBL but another question now is how will his defense be affected by the repaired Achilles? He was not much of a defender IRC. He was tall and somewhat mobile but he could not keep up with other imports. Even those not known to be scorers. And as said he was not much of a rim protector considering his height.
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Even without the ACL injuries, he is not a good defender. He however is a terriffic offensive player.
 
whatever defensive weaknesses Double B may eventually manifest, once our future opponents started to figure it out

the other red flags in our system.

I really do hope that the likes of 6'8 Mike Philips and 6'7 Zavier Lucero may eventually get their respective exemption in the immediate future.

those 2 can cover the possible defensive loopholes of Bennie and those two can compliment perfectly with our Manila Walls.

composed of 7'3 Kai Sotto, 6'10 QMB, 6'10 AJ Edu and 6'10 JMF

let's set aside Kamaka Hepa for now, there's a lot of contrasting news that's popping nowadays.

Sir Bill Velasco's claimed that the dude has obtained his PH passport before turning 16 yrs. old and some people at that time

think that the people behind Filam Sports USA are the one responsible(?) for the paperworks and legworks during the time

when they brought those high school hafus to play in that NBTC tournament (Fil-Nation Select is a different group to avoid confusion)

but a few days ago IBN's favorite vlogger claimed with a "Question Mark and Exclamation Point" in his episode title

that it is a fake news that the dude didn't obtain any documents.

Kamaka Hepa, now a matured person and more wiser will be the one who can answer that thing alongside his current handlers.

as a fan my main concern really and I keep on mentioning this since the time of adam.

is a high level PG and SG, to compliment our frontline.
 
techno_playa said:
Don’t make Bennie a big. That solves his defensive issues.

He’s a 6'10 wing. Treat him as such.

Peja Stojaković and Davis Bertāns were dead eye snipers but they were never gonna work out as bigs.
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It makes sense. Boatwright appears closer to 6'8 anyway, 6'9 max perfect for SF.
 
JAMSKIE said:
Blatche was very very hard to defend against becoz he isn't your traditional post-up, back-to-the-basket big man. Blatche is a facing-the-basket type of a big guy that thrives on dribble drives plus he can also hit it from trey. In defending Blatche, the defender has to chase him in the perimeter to prevent him from taking open looks from the 3pt area, pero hindi rin naman pweding masyadong dumikit ang defender becoz Blatche is going to blow by the defender. If you put your big guy to defend Blatche, that big guy won't have the mobility & laterals to chase Blatche in the perimeter. Pag nilagay mo naman na defender kay Blatche is yung small forward or wingman mo, Blatche may just post up & overpower the small defender.
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Agreed! I think Kuya Dray’s presence is how Fajardo gets most of his points as the defense is mostly focused on him and to Castro and/or Alapag.
 
Is tamayo really injured? Only baltazar seems to be the best replacement for him. Or lopez. Both are good 2way players.

The present pool reeks of too-much favoritism. The issue that must be addressed is how to create a pool that has serious winning chances against nz and aus. Not the stupid, stupid creation of a pool that fit's lefou's very limited ginebra/ smc pba-jailed system. An assistant coach from a top5 us ncaa div1, (let's say kentucky?) team would be very positive.

Trying to answer the wrong question cannot produce the right answers. That is so basic.

Further, if there were constraints like very limited pool financing, then ginebra-smc could have made the issue public so more sponsors can pay for better players and coaches.

Is kouame a local player now? That is very nice as kai and other bigs will certainly not be always available.

If he is available as center, boatwright or qmb can slide down to sf to guard the pretty good sfs of nz and aus. If boatwright/ baltazar isnt available, brownlee/lopez/abando will still be better as explosive sgs. Then you have excellent chances of jamming also the really good guards of the two teams, as their penetration game wont go well against the size, mobility and defense of pinoy frontliners AND guards.
 
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