Philippines Senior National Team Thread Vol. V

[JAMSKIE]

If we hosted a tournament like mvp cup we couldve used lopez and caelum harris just like the hinton bros being used by Taipei

Problem with the cadet team is that, it needs sponsorship. Who will sponsor? Mighty Sports? Ronald Mascarinas? I doubt MVP will sponsor the cadet team now or in the future.

[Metta]

If we hosted a tournament like mvp cup we couldve used lopez and caelum harris just like the hinton bros being used by Taipei

Wow, just found out the Hinton bros are playing for Taipei, have seen them train since middle school. Robert (17) is same age as Vyctorious Miller and used to be with the same club team (Vyc always plays up though).

Robert Hinton kinda plays like Reggie Miller and will be playing for Harvard U.

[ccharmed]

There is still these ridiculous mumblings and idea that one or both ravenas is better than abando. Well, these two could not produce pleasant surprises while they were with japanese teams. Abando had more than enough pleasant surprises in his sokor team's championship run. We also know that sokor teams will always be stronger in winning than japanese teams.

It will really be favoritism if any of the ravenas are chosen. They cant bring anything special productively that abando has proven he can regularly provide.

What are the japanese league stat lines of the brothers against that of abando in korea? Their teams certainly cannot beat abando's team too.

Worse, one continuously sells his height as 6'1". He looks 5'10 only, compared to his 6'2 brother.

[sroth3839]

There is still this ridiculous mumblings and idea that one or both ravenas is better than abando. Well, these two could not produce pleasant surprises while they were with japanese teams. Abando had more than enough pleasant surprises in his sokor team's championship run. We also know that sokor teams will always be stronger in winning than japanese teams.

It will really be favoritism if any of the ravenas are chosen. They cant bring anything special productively that abando has proven he can regularly provide.

What are the japanese league stat lines of the brothers against that of abando in korea? Their teams certainly cannot beat abando's team too.

I won’t be surprised if either Ravena sibling will still be in a Gilas pool at 34-35 years of age.

[zairex]

There is still these ridiculous mumblings and idea that one or both ravenas is better than abando. Well, these two could not produce pleasant surprises while they were with japanese teams. Abando had more than enough pleasant surprises in his sokor team's championship run. We also know that sokor teams will always be stronger in winning than japanese teams.

It will really be favoritism if any of the ravenas are chosen. They cant bring anything special productively that abando has proven he can regularly provide.

What are the japanese league stat lines of the brothers against that of abando in korea? Their teams certainly cannot beat abando's team too.

Worse, one continuously sells his height as 6'1". He looks 5'10 only, compared to his 6'2 brother.

Checks Bakits YT on Abando to view his lack of defensive awareness. He miss read coverages. Even Anyang coach comment on him.

[ccharmed]

How many points exactly during the very few minutes coachot gave abando did the opposing players make? Did anyone in foreign nt teams made him look bad?

He has played only one season in the kbl. If he played bad, im sure the champion anyang will not bother to hire him again. Wasnt he the highest paid import in the kbl last year? Did the ravenas get the 13 million pesos compensation abando got?

[ARMIR]

How many points exactly during the very few minutes coachot gave abando did the opposing players make? Did anyone in foreign nt teams made him look bad?

He has played only one season in the kbl. If he played bad, im sure the champion anyang will not bother to hire him again. Wasnt he the highest paid import in the kbl last year? Did the ravenas get the 13 million pesos compensation abando got?

All that and they want to train Abando as a PG too,to make him more versatile,its just that Chot just doesn't know how to use him,like Oftana.

[ccharmed]

Exactly. Abando and oftana bring different skill sets to a game. If their potent skillls cant be used, it is because of the very limited abilities of the coach, and not the players.

We know that coachot prefers the dribol-dribol drive as if his life depends on it. Because it does: if the dribol drive fails against a smarter coach, then that is the time he makes his noisy excuses. At least coachot can make a japanese division2 player look good. Yeah, the 5'10 guy who dishonestly sells himself as 6'1.

He even made a video interview while he was driving. He would have been arrested if he did that illegal stunt in another country. He really could get away with his antics.

And he says he doesnt know how to stop a very good player like kat. That brings back the times when every idiotic nba guard boasted that he was the "jordan stopper".

The pinoy nt is not supposed to stop kat. It is supposed to make the dominican TEAM try to beat the local nt -- if they can. It is supposed to beat the dominican and italian team for that matter. However it can. Why should 50k pinoys buy tickets to a game where the pinoy nt voluntarily will die?

That american coach who made the local nt good a long time ago had the right coaching skills, knowledge and ATTITUDE. He tried to find all the scrappy ways to make a truly unpromising team look good on the international stage. He did brung the f*ckin' cement bag to sandbag the opposing teams.

[Rodbi]

I won’t be surprised if either Ravena sibling will still be in a Gilas pool at 34-35 years of age.

We'll see with the upcoming new SBP leadership if the brothers will still be favored for Gilas duties. They may seem to have already peaked internationally and are now on a downward trajectory quality-wise but the way I see it, they are still good for future qualifying windows and minor tournaments like the SEA games, just because of availability alone.

[C2Hamm]

im happy that people are able to share their thoughts on possible final 12, but (not here) i see some posters really put a lot of emotions on players who are probably will be the 9th to 12th man on the team. teams would normally have a core, and the others are players the coaches think best fits the team. whether because they can replace someone from the core due to foul trouble\injury, just know the system well (example is Nieto during CTBs time or Ayo's Letran\DLSU boys with converge), or players that the coaching staff just have trust in. lets say 1 of the ravena's get into the team but plays 0mins for the whole WC. how will fans feel? if Abando gets n the team and plays 0mins for the whole WC, how will the fans feel? heck, what if AJ gets in and plays 0mins (highly unlikely) how will the fans feel? but at the end of the day, the coach is there to decide and he know more than any of us because of his role. so im happy to read stuff, just not sure why people are so emotionally invested with certain players.

[Rds]

All that and they want to train Abando as a PG too,to make him more versatile,its just that Chot just doesn't know how to use him,like Oftana.

Abando still needs a lot of work to improve his handles. Despitr the blocks his defense still needs a lot of work. While his shooting is good his handles are not that good to drive after a chase out. As other people noticed this is the weakness of Chots system. It might not be technically DDO it still needs a lot of dribbling.

Dwight is perfect for this. Parks has the skills for it but he can be put out of the picture with physical defense and he will not drive anymore. Malonzo, who should be the tall SF, at least to me didnt look comfortable in it. Oftana is the slowest among the SFs. He doesnt seem to be any better.

This only leaves Dwight and JC as your reliable SFs. But they play together. I think the key here is to be able to play Malonzo and or Oftana at SF to give Dwight and JC a rest from SF.

If Chot can’t do that, its on him and his system. Even in the NBA the 3 spot has been a defensive position. That’s why 3 and D. Not everybody can have Lebron or KD at 3. So the rest have defensive specialists at 3. What Chot’s system is doing is removing the 3 and D and making it G as 3. A guard at the SF spot. It was ok when he had Gabe, a guard who was tall enough to guard SFs and Ping a PF who was mobile enough to switch at the perimeter but strong enough to guard the post.

Dwight is a decent defender but Malonzo is not a strong PF. I hope Chot adjusts enough to finally allow Malonzo to play SF decently like how Tab used Balti, Tamayo and Navarro at the perimeter. Imagine, even without Dwight, Gilas almost defeated Serbia. That is a testament to having tall defensive wings.

Of course there was DR. But having sub 6 PGs and playing former pudgy undersized center big Mike a lot of minutes will do that to you. Navarro and Balti did not do particularly well. But Mike was a whopping minus 20 plus. And one could argue he worsened lineups he was in against the guard centric DR.

Going back, the 3 guard back court looks pretty offensively until taller perimeter players overwhelm you. Or until Dwight conks out. Just imagine Parks or even JC switching to Kat.

[JAMSKIE]

Abando still needs a lot of work to improve his handles. Despitr the blocks his defense still needs a lot of work. While his shooting is good his handles are not that good to drive after a chase out. As other people noticed this is the weakness of Chots system. It might not be technically DDO it still needs a lot of dribbling.

Agree.
But as I've said before, I think Abando's ball handling has improved significantly in the last 3 or 4 years. I remember him hardly putting the ball on the floor & making drives to the basket or even pushing the ball in transition during his stint with UST. I think Abando made a conscious effort to improve this aspect of his game & the effort really paid off. Although of course Abando's handles isn't in the level of that of a Rayray Parks, or a CJ Perez or a Chris Newsome. The good thing is, at 25 yrs of age, Abando's game is expected to still improve. I think the guy is a hard worker so we can expect that he would be pushing himself to improve his game further.

[ja.he]

im happy that people are able to share their thoughts on possible final 12, but (not here) i see some posters really put a lot of emotions on players who are probably will be the 9th to 12th man on the team. teams would normally have a core, and the others are players the coaches think best fits the team. whether because they can replace someone from the core due to foul trouble\injury, just know the system well (example is Nieto during CTBs time or Ayo's Letran\DLSU boys with converge), or players that the coaching staff just have trust in. lets say 1 of the ravena's get into the team but plays 0mins for the whole WC. how will fans feel? if Abando gets n the team and plays 0mins for the whole WC, how will the fans feel? heck, what if AJ gets in and plays 0mins (highly unlikely) how will the fans feel? but at the end of the day, the coach is there to decide and he know more than any of us because of his role. so im happy to read stuff, just not sure why people are so emotionally invested with certain players.

Agree. I mean we need to put a team that will produce the best results and the coach knows it better. People are too sentimental with regards to certain players. Before, fans got mad against Tab for the non-inclusion of Abueva in the OQT. Now, fans are batting for the inclusion of Rhenz Abando, when some players in the pool are still ahead of him.

Shhhhh, Filipinos, being fanatical, make me scratch my head.

[kukikups]

Agree. I mean we need to put a team that will produce the best results and the coach knows it better. People are too sentimental with regards to certain players. Before, fans got mad against Tab for the non-inclusion of Abueva in the OQT. Now, fans are batting for the inclusion of Rhenz Abando, when some players in the pool are still ahead of him.

Shhhhh, Filipinos, being fanatical, make me scratch my head.

Haters gonna hate ika nga. I feel bad for the Ravenas in a sense that they get hate for stuff they have no control on. The 2 try to make themselves available for the national team kung pwede, don't hear any issues with them during training. Granted there are better options to get slots, pero there are things that the coaching staff and management knows that we don't. Similar to the Nieto brothers getting flak for being in Tab's team before, eh gusto ni Tab eh, fit sa system nya. Chot he will get whoever he thinks he will utilize, di yung babakat ang pwet sa bench kakaupo and will live with it regardless of what results.

Bago nyo ako hiritan na ravena lover - thirdy has no chance to be in the final 12, no fit for him here, kiefer has a chance just because he is the only decent "PG" in the lineup. Walang totoong pg sa roster na to kahit si thompson, although he has superb playmaking skills but that is predicated on instinct and not by his mastery of the system plays.

[B L A C K S U N]

I think Kai's game has improved a lot. I remember him being unable to run in u16s. I just think Kai was really overrated as a prospect by certain groups. Its the modern game, Kai game isnt really built for it.

Also Im comparing the reaction to Tab losing twice in the WUBS to the reaction to the Jones Cup losses of RoS. Both tourneys really dont matter I agree but reactions are so different and my belief is that certain types just want to hyperfocus on the PBA instead of seeing the larger problems of our program.

His improvements are minimal. He still has low motor, lazy on defense, over reliance on highlight plays, always gets left behind during transition, poor 3pt shooting percentages and has unreliable mid range shots, susceptible to turnovers due to poor ball handling. There's a reason why he's undrafted and always given little playing time. Just look at his contemporaries, Wemby and Chet, where are they now? Yup, both got drafted as 1st and 2nd overall pick.

>Also Im comparing the reaction to Tab losing twice in the WUBS
You know why? Because his collegiate team consists of amateurs ended up with 5 wins and 3 losses back in 2018 Jones Cup. 4th overall. Now compare that to ROS.