Philippines Senior National Team Thread Vol. V

[paliganibossalfrancis2]

now that we've already assured a seat in FIBA Asia Cup 2025

it is wiser now to expand the pool a little bit and let those core unit composed of Kai, AJ, JMF, Jamie, JB, Scoty and Dwight should skip that 3rd and final window

they are glassy and we can't afford to hear nor read news that those dudes are ain't available on Aug. 5 to 17, 2025 because they are aching here and there

seriously, our FIBA level pool of talents are still shallow and thin compared to defending champ AUS whom I think can win it all even parading their usual Team C

same thing with the Tall Blacks as per Sir Dave's pronouncement, despite missing some quality guys bec. of club commitments in Europe they are still a big headache

on all aspiring Asian teams including us.

with the recent pronouncement of newly appointed Program Director and Team Manager for Senior and Boys team Grandpa Chualay

wherein he mentioned that they are contemplating to add 2 or 3 warm bodies to the existing pool

it's no brainer that the likes of QMB, Heading, Schonny and Balti can improve our shallow pool

with Japeth, AK34, Carl, KQ, CJ, Calvin plus those 4 I mentioned it's all fair game against those(rematch) NZL and CTE teams.

i think this pool is created solely for FIBA Asia Cup purposes. Day 1 of preparations started on FIBA OQT participation.

Once we reach FIBA World Cup Qualifiers now that's the time we need to expand the pool. Retain 6 players from this current pool then slightly improve on the other 6

When we qualify for the World Cup that's when we put our best team

and then if we do qualify for LA2028 that's when we cover all holes and fill the gaps.

Every level we must improve.

 

[ARMIR2]

He has tunnel vision just like Kobe. Need to have better coaching or follow structured team concept

It would not hurt if he's in the practice squad learn a thing or two,make him feel he belongs.

 

[ARMIR2]

i think this pool is created solely for FIBA Asia Cup purposes. Day 1 of preparations started on FIBA OQT participation.

Once we reach FIBA World Cup Qualifiers now that's the time we need to expand the pool. Retain 6 players from this current pool then slightly improve on the other 6

When we qualify for the World Cup that's when we put our best team

and then if we do qualify for LA2028 that's when we cover all holes and fill the gaps.

Every level we must improve.

A couple of losses,usually changes alot of things,but if the team keeps winning,not gonna change the chemistry as far as CTC and Long Hiar is concerned.

 

[ccharmed2]

The real tests of the quality of the current pinoy nt are the february 2025 road games. They have to experience the home cooking of games in new zealand, like those mentioned by sourpuss corey webster. Our nt should also be prepared for the "7 player" home cooking nt of taiwan.

Webster forgot to mention that the japanese and other foreigners were doing the katsudon and ramen home cooking of referee services.

I hope the sbp will require cone to come up with the 15-man team which already excludes injured or whimsically, "day-to-day" players. There will be far less chances of injuries too if cone is encouraged to use 12 and not 8 overplayed players. Those 40 minutes of nt games are far more effort demanding than 48 minutes of pba games..

The team will also need a minimum of 6 bigs. You can be certain that 3-4 creative fouls will be charged against kai and abai in the first half of roadkill home cooking. The nt will need kouame, qmb as well as heading and malonzo, in the 15-man pool of road games, if edu is iffy or indisposed again.

The nt will always need a bigger, more athletic and volume shooting crew to silence hostile home crowds.

 

[BJ_Reloaded2]

i think this pool is created solely for FIBA Asia Cup purposes. Day 1 of preparations started on FIBA OQT participation.

Once we reach FIBA World Cup Qualifiers now that's the time we need to expand the pool. Retain 6 players from this current pool then slightly improve on the other 6

When we qualify for the World Cup that's when we put our best team

and then if we do qualify for LA2028 that's when we cover all holes and fill the gaps.

Every level we must improve.

Sir paliga,

exactly.

the current lineup was intended for that FIBA Asia Cup championship.

considering the possible lineup for 33th(?) SEAG and 2026 AG are mostly compose of ineligibles who had the best chance to be exempted moving forward.

now for the road towards WC 2027, it will boil down again to that current 15-man pool.

who knows, hopefully by the time for LA2028 OQT, Grandpa Chualay's magic touch may take effect on those ineligibles.

"the earlier the better".

 

[BJ_Reloaded2]

Similar to why Nigeria was allowed to field all those nigerian—americans, to advance the game of basketball in the country

Sir CoJ,

I just want to add on that statement of yours is the fact that everytime a Nigerian couple "bears a child" in a foreign country e.g. USA

as per hospital's registration and documentation the child's nationality would be "nigerian" as per couple's consent and approval.

and majority of those people are pro-active as far as documentation are concern now if there's undocumented Nigerians that is a subject for another story

we Filipinos also had the same challenges to those so-called "undocs"

surely, as per US Law, kids that are born within it's territory are automatic to become an American citizen.

again documentation are very important moving forward.

that is why kudos to the parents and kin of Jaime, QMB and others who are pro-active during those early times.

 

[lurklurk2]

I missed the discussion here regarding Newsome's future replacement. He has multiple roles with the Gilas team, and i dont think it will be replaced by just one player. The players that will step into his roles are already in the team, in my opinion:

Primary perimeter defender (poa/chaser) - Thompson, Malonzo
Off-ball guard with secondary playmaking responsibilities - Ramos, Quiambao, Perez
Back-up point guard - Perez, RJ Abarrientos (already under CTC with Ginebra)

 

[IPC2]

I missed the discussion here regarding Newsome's future replacement. He has multiple roles with the Gilas team, and i dont think it will be replaced by just one player. The players that will step into his roles are already in the team, in my opinion:

Primary perimeter defender (poa/chaser) - Thompson, Malonzo
Off-ball guard with secondary playmaking responsibilities - Ramos, Quiambao, Perez
Back-up point guard - Perez, RJ Abarrientos (already under CTC with Ginebra)

Call me crazy, but I think Quiambao should work towards becoming a secondary ballhandler, or even a point guard. Expands our lineup options after June Mar and Newsome retire.

If Malonzo is to have use in the lineup, I think he should focus on 3-point shooting and perimeter defense. We will need the perimeter defense at 3, especially after JB retires.

 

[Artek2]

He has a foreigner mother right? Not eligible for KBL.

That's just plain sexist on the part of the KBL.

 

[ARMIR2]

That's just plain sexist on the part of the KBL.

Hemogenous thinkers,remember even pure blooded KoreAms are not Koreans unless one of the parents are at least born in SK.

 

[Sikatrix2]

That's just plain sexist on the part of the KBL.

Korea is a pretty right wing country

 

[JAMSKIE2]

I missed the discussion here regarding Newsome's future replacement. He has multiple roles with the Gilas team, and i dont think it will be replaced by just one player. The players that will step into his roles are already in the team, in my opinion:

Primary perimeter defender (poa/chaser) - Thompson, Malonzo
Off-ball guard with secondary playmaking responsibilities - Ramos, Quiambao, Perez
Back-up point guard - Perez, RJ Abarrientos (already under CTC with Ginebra)

Despite RJ Abarrientos having the familiarity with coach Tim's system, I would still prefer a bigger/taller point guard over him. I feel 6-foot-1 combo guard Schonny Winston is worth a try. As offensive skilled RJ Abarrientos is & with his familiarity with the triangle, he is a defensive liability. He would just turnout to be a weak link of Gilas with his inferior defense. Winston on the other hand, from what I saw in his game with La Salle in the UAAP, seems a decent defender & of course can play as point guard.

I think its about time we depart from having midget point guard/s in our national team unless of course that midget point guard has exceptional skills, quickness & athleticism like a Jayson Castro or a Johnny Abarrientos (RJ's uncle). RJ obviously is no Castro nor a Johnny A.

 

[IPC2]

I have a feeling Calvin might be on a hot spot, hes been always subbed off for making mistakes by Cone.. heres hoping Navarro gets a look

I'm beginning to dislike Oftana. He reminds me of Matthew Wright as far as FIBA performance is concerned. Oftana hasn't hit shots he normally makes in the PBA. To think that he is known as a dead shot in the PBA. Chris Newsome isn't really that good in 3pt shooting yet playing for Gilas, Newsome has shot better from 3pt than Oftana.

Oftana is basically a rawer Pogoy. I really hope they don't replace any of the forwards but add more like Caelum Harris, Wil Navarro or Francis Lopez, I'd like to see Caulum Harris develop the chops to take over Newsome

Hoping Navarro can get a look due to his defense.

As for Oftana, to his credit, he can defend. I think he's defended decently in the OQT and in this window. Prevented blow-bys and stayed in front of or connected to his man for the most part.

 

[ccharmed2]

Oftana, like amos and aguilar, are okay against the east asian and west asian nts. But against the australian nt and stronger world teams, our nt has to field extra-strong and extra-skilled players. Even newsome and cj will have serious problems against world elite players. There are really good replacements in the pipeline. Younger too.

At this point, i see our nt will not have serious problems in candidate nt players.

Until local collegiate teams have an average height of 6'5, and with centers at 6'8 to 6'11, our nt will still not be naturally tall. Centers in my time were a mere 6'1 on the average. It is 6'5-6'6 today. So, top 20 is doable this decade, but top 10 requires 3 more decades.

The us nt is not that extraordinary. With a population 3 times more than the philippines at 340 million, and a lot more non-starving healthy families, their best player choices will be at least 3x ours

 

[ccharmed2]

The sbp has yet to fulfill an unstated but real public pinoy vision: to be able to hurdle top 20 and some top 10 world level nts

The present 15-man crew of cone is good enough against strong east asian and west asian teams. But against beyond-asian top teams, they are not good enough. Obviously, they dont even have super-athletic defenders against much lower ranked hong kong 3point spree ahooters.

So, the sbp must be able to identify and even pay for the services of these elite additional 5-7 young players as good as, if not much better, than the current pooled players. There are always youtube and spinph channels where these new nt players can be listed down along with the "specs" of their known abilities.​

 

[k3ttch2]

The sbp has yet to fulfill an unstated but real public pinoy vision: to be able to hurdle top 20 and some top 10 world level nts

The present 15-man crew of cone is good enough against strong east asian and west asian teams. But against beyond-asian top teams, they are not good enough. Obviously, they dont even have super-athletic defenders against much lower ranked hong kong 3point spree ahooters.

So, the sbp must be able to identify and even pay for the services of these elite additional 5-7 young players as good as, if not much better, than the current pooled players. There are always youtube and spinph channels where these new nt players can be listed down along with the "specs" of their known abilities.​

Wasn't Latvia ranked number 6 worldwide?

 

[ccharmed2]

Wasn't Latvia ranked number 6 worldwide?

That is only one country. And nobody, least of all the latvians, were expecting to lose in their home court. Almost a guarantee of losing by itself. Let us see if the pinoy nt can beat them again after the unexpected win. New zealand too. The only coach who declared his team prepared for the pinoy nt was brazil. And it showed. The dom rep and brazil, which are ranked lower than latvia easily beat the pinoy nt.

Disrespecting the abilities of opponents can lead to bad results. Nobody ignores the better african teams today. The pinoy nt is a work in progress. We already saw what it cannot do without an extraordinary generational pinoy center like kai sotto.

​​​​​​There are good reasons why the pinoy nt is ranked 34th only.

We also have to see the pinoy ny beat top 20 teams in their home courts. Even the no. 1 ranked usa is now more than beatable. It doesnt mean the nts which beat them are better.

This kind of logic is like that of one classmate getting a good passing grade after just one exam, and boasting about it. Unfortunately for him, passing the course and degree requires passing tons of exams and not merely one. It is nice to be optimistic, but it doesnt pay the bills.

And to simply kill this kind of argument, the world rankings are based on the results of many games against better teams. Beating new zealand or latvia in one game doesnt mean that our team must he ranked higher. Latvia is down anyway from no 5 to 9. The only asian team in the top 10 and 20 is australia.

The text you quoted and bolded is perfectly grammatically correct already: i said some, and nts, which are plural. Any team can surprise any other team on any given sunday. Are pinoys beating top teams regularly?

I am sure that pinoy yabang will also lead to pinoys boasting about the gymnastics power of the philippines. After all, yulo won a pair of olympic golds, which not even a team led by kai has yet to do.

 

[lurklurk2]

Call me crazy, but I think Quiambao should work towards becoming a secondary ballhandler, or even a point guard. Expands our lineup options after June Mar and Newsome retire.

If Malonzo is to have use in the lineup, I think he should focus on 3-point shooting and perimeter defense. We will need the perimeter defense at 3, especially after JB retires.

Definitely not crazy at all. Quiambao as a guard brings so much advantage and he has all the tools right now. Him and malonzo are CTC's scottie pippen prototypes, quiambao on offense as a point forward who can facilitate and play all-around while malonzo on defense can guard up and down positions, can guard POA, lengthy and athletic.

 

[lurklurk2]

Despite RJ Abarrientos having the familiarity with coach Tim's system, I would still prefer a bigger/taller point guard over him. I feel 6-foot-1 combo guard Schonny Winston is worth a try. As offensive skilled RJ Abarrientos is & with his familiarity with the triangle, he is a defensive liability. He would just turnout to be a weak link of Gilas with his inferior defense. Winston on the other hand, from what I saw in his game with La Salle in the UAAP, seems a decent defender & of course can play as point guard.

I think its about time we depart from having midget point guard/s in our national team unless of course that midget point guard has exceptional skills, quickness & athleticism like a Jayson Castro or a Johnny Abarrientos (RJ's uncle). RJ obviously is no Castro nor a Johnny A.

I get your point but i also see a lot of clamor for heading, and id rather have rj who although is 2 inches shorter but is a similar shooter and defender and brings better ballhandling/playmaking, and familiarity to CTC system.

To be clear, i have someone like BRP and maybe tuffin ahead of both heading and rj. I just felt RJ is the most realistic among the four.

 

[Athrunzala2]

I get your point but i also see a lot of clamor for heading, and id rather have rj who although is 2 inches shorter but is a similar shooter and defender and brings better ballhandling/playmaking, and familiarity to CTC system.

To be clear, i have someone like BRP and maybe tuffin ahead of both heading and rj. I just felt RJ is the most realistic among the four.

RJ does not play defense