Philippines Senior National Team Thread Vol. V

[Giannis34GOD]

Bigman play is still important in FIBA, wherever you go. Last line of defense, post or rim-running options, and you can park a good rim protector in the paint for a long time.

We will need a quality big on defense. Have one like Mike Phillips become eligible, or by 2026, naturalize a good defensive big (ala Ange, bonus if with a good offensive skillset) who was born on maybe 2002 or later in case Kai hasn't developed as a defender by the 2026-2028 range.

JB's replacement NP for the most part should be Ange for defensive stability. JC could be playable only if AJ's in the lineup, but we might sacrifice the other big on defense.

I think Kai will develop his defensive skills come 2026 - 2027, As he matures, He will learn how to defend form inside and perimeter... We already saw it in past couple of games that Kai is already contributing a lot... I think we need to have faith in him... If we not trust him, he will definitely fails, I'm sure CTC have faith on Kai... He will have a bigger role in this 4 year span...

[ARMIR]

I think Kai will develop his defensive skills come 2026 - 2027, As he matures, He will learn how to defend form inside and perimeter... We already saw it in past couple of games that Kai is already contributing a lot... I think we need to have faith in him... If we not trust him, he will definitely fails, I'm sure CTC have faith on Kai... He will have a bigger role in this 4 year span...

I really think he already reached the peak of his offensive skills,every year its the same old song,by next year he will develope his making own shots,skills,he will drive to the basket without any help from his guards,he will learn to guard the perimeter.It is what it is,just give him a pg who will put Kai above his own stats and don't complain about it,and he will be ok,definitely he's not gonna be a Chet,Wemby or even a Paolo Banchero,he's a big man who can score as long as the pg ignores everyones else and he's deep and highlight dunks are good for the fans.

[ARMIR]

From Eala’s comments I assume Kai’s defense is still far from the level we need. It seems to me TC and SMC’s bravado of picking 6’6 JB as NP is because of the presence of Edu. Without Edu our defense would be uncompetitive IMO at high comp even with Kai. I just hope that Edu’s B league team doesnt overextend him again. As I said before, with his injury history it seems Edu has to be game managed all his career. This proved true when he was injured after his team kept playing him almost 40 minutes. It seems to me that TC and SMCs bravado of relying on Edu, Kai and JF to anchor our defense is risky. Again we will see as the comp becomes better.

However, if our defense is exposed with better comp then TC has to make a hard decision. It seems he is comfortable with an athletic SF/PF as NP. But if our 3 headed C rotation shows to be lacking he may have no choice but to pick a C NP, Kouame.

In this game CTC did some experimenting on the defense,he had Kai post closer to the FT line to give him that extra step to stop the perimeter shooters,but to no avail he was still not quick enough and Kai was smart enough not to jump,most likely he doesn't want to land on the shooter's feet,but just stretching his arm is not a good defense.So for Kai to be more a rim protector he needs to be partnered with an athletic big 4 who can bother or slow down the guy driving in and give Kai enough time to adjust .

[Metta]

I really think he already reached the peak of his offensive skills,every year its the same old song,by next year he will develope his making own shots,skills,he will drive to the basket without any help from his guards,he will learn to guard the perimeter.It is what it is,just give him a pg who will put Kai above his own stats and don't complain about it,and he will be ok,definitely he's not gonna be a Chet,Wemby or even a Paolo Banchero,he's a big man who can score as long as the pg ignores everyones else and he's deep and highlight dunks are good for the fans.

Kai is 21, and although it has been slower than expected, the improvement in his strength is noticeable. It's realistic to expect him to continue to get stronger. Add to that him becoming "wiser" and more experienced. And if and when he gains the all important "confidence" his offense will definitely improve. Unlike defense, lateral speed is not as important on offense. No way he has peaked offensively.

Defensively, like I said in the other thread, he has a mediocre ceiling.

[ccharmed]

Kouame is actually more than good enough as additional np big for asian rounds. A solid, very reliable small forward scorer like brownlee or clarkson is needed only against australia and possibly new zealand. Abando and quiambao are reliable scorers and defenders, and must be in the nt for at least four years.

What is truly historical is that cone stopped using midget guards and undersized forwards. Even with non-sensational asean-level players like newsome, perez, oftana and tamayo, the hong kong 123s were easy pickings. This will be true even against the sokors and japanese -- although abando, lopez, mason amos, and baltazar are the more explosive 2-way, stronger, and scarier players still against the hefty, tall and quick northern east asians.

What are needed are more filfors who clearly should be considered regular pinoys -- after fiba endorsement-- for the next ten years. The 6'8 mike phillips, 6'7 balunggay, and 6'9 sean alter are certainly more than good enough against asian teams. Then, they can still request fiba consideration for the mobile 7-foot tolentino as local hawaiian-pinoy. It must be cone who should convince and get this young guy as decent replacement for the aging fajardo and aguilar as twin tower pair with kaiju.

All the young guys i mentioned are probably role-focused, skilled and athletic enough to neutralize the strongest and biggest asian teams. They are also enough to form the 12+8, 20-man nt pool that can dispel all injury and inavailability concerns for all the major tournaments, without needlessly fagging out or overusing prime players. Even better is a 22-man pool with clarkson and tolentino, as edu and fajardo are now injury-prone.

Of course, there is still this matter of the olympic dream. But even youtube fanbois know that up to 4 nba players can be plugged in to our nt if good luck pans out.

[Giannis34GOD]

I really think he already reached the peak of his offensive skills,every year its the same old song,by next year he will develope his making own shots,skills,he will drive to the basket without any help from his guards,he will learn to guard the perimeter.It is what it is,just give him a pg who will put Kai above his own stats and don't complain about it,and he will be ok,definitely he's not gonna be a Chet,Wemby or even a Paolo Banchero,he's a big man who can score as long as the pg ignores everyones else and he's deep and highlight dunks are good for the fans.

A Papagianis like center is enough for Kai for us… if I were him, play in Europe, his style is fit in Europe than in US… but for now, B league is his home for now until he matures and reach his prime years at mid 20s

[Giannis34GOD]

Kouame is actually more than good enough as additional np big for asian rounds. A solid, very reliable small forward scorer like brownlee or clarkson is needed only against australia and possibly new zealand. Abando and quiambao are reliable scorers and defenders, and must be in the nt for at least four years.

What is truly historical is that cone stopped using midget guards and undersized forwards. Even with non-sensational asean-level players like newsome, perez, oftana and tamayo, the hong kong 123s were easy pickings. This will be true even against the sokors and japanese -- although abando, lopez, mason amos, and baltazar are the more explosive 2-way, stronger, and scarier players still against the hefty, tall and quick northern east asians.

What are needed are more filfors who clearly should be considered regular pinoys -- after fiba endorsement-- for the next ten years. The 6'8 mike phillips, 6'7 balunggay, and 6'9 sean alter are certainly more than good enough against asian teams. Then, they can still request fiba consideration for the mobile 7-foot tolentino as local hawaiian-pinoy. Cone can convince and get this young guy as decent replacement for the aging fajardo and aguilar as twin tower pair with kaiju.

All the young guys i mentioned are probably skilled and athletic enough to neutralize the strongest and biggest asian teams. They are also enough to form the 12+8, 20-man nt pool that can dispel all injury and inavailability concerns for all the major tournaments, without needlessly fagging out or overusing prime players. Even better is a 22-man pool with clarkson and tolentino.

Of course, there is still this matter of the olympic dream. But even youtube fanbois know that up to 4 nba players can be plugged in to our nt if good luck pans out.

Actually SBP can apply now the eligibility status of Philips bros and Balunggay… look at the Syrian guy Nicholson, he just only reside in Syria for just more than a year, but he get his exemption already…. The question is will SBP do that? Because it means if they will be local player, they can play in B league as Asian import… PBA, the main stakeholder of SBP will not approve it… that means they will lose their prospects to their league…

[ccharmed]

Not that many pinoys can play in the japanese and korean leagues. Why, even rebel-returnees like slaughter will likely suit up for a san miguel team soon.

There are very few who will likely stay out as they can substantially help in winning championships. As in abando and sotto. The others are more like role players.

Even better, korea and japan release all players for scheduled fiba tournaments. The pba -- like the hong kong and taiwan leagues --is so pathetic that it cant do this. The pba is now so weak that it cant even form asian-strength teams. It is there to produce trophies only for san miguel teams.

One can appreciate ithe genuine san miguel desire to help develop the nationsl team. However, it was never the fault of pinoy players to desire to play elsewhere. Also, guys like abando and sotto clearly improved because they first played in far stronger foreign leagues and not the pba. Even if they retire in their late 20s or early 30s, the pba will still recruit them as they are higher-quality players.

Look at that old retired nba center who played for the strong group. He clearly was still a class higher than the best asian bigs. I actually forgot the name of this now forgettable nba player.

[IPC]

Kai is 21, and although it has been slower than expected, the improvement in his strength is noticeable. It's realistic to expect him to continue to get stronger. Add to that him becoming "wiser" and more experienced. And if and when he gains the all important "confidence" his offense will definitely improve. Unlike defense, lateral speed is not as important on offense. No way he has peaked offensively.

Defensively, like I said in the other thread, he has a mediocre ceiling.

A Papagianis like center is enough for Kai for us… if I were him, play in Europe, his style is fit in Europe than in US… but for now, B league is his home for now until he matures and reach his prime years at mid 20s

We need a good defensive PF (as well as two good perimeter defenders) to pair with Kai. That means AJ and JB are the only good long-minutes partners at PF for Kai at this point.

At least Kai improved strength-wise and was able to deter many shots at the rim.

[ccharmed]

So, how many asian centers are better than kaiju? He certainly doesnt play like the best slavic, spanish or american centers. The pba came nowhere near producing a fiba-grade center like him.

He definitely can afford to "disappoint" the nba pinoy fanbois. As long as he does the best he can do on the floor, day in and day out, he cannot disappoint himself. Anything else is just a fool's delusion.

The only thing he must do now is to bulk up and condition his body like an mma fighter. His 21 year old body is mature enough to take the brutal disciplined training of prime basketball athletes. He can now safely go up to a well-muscled 240-260 lbs without heightened injury risks. Without an "nba body" and top athleticism training, he doesnt belong in the nba -- it is that simple. Pang romansa lang ang katawan niya: masyadong uhugin pa para sa nba.

Whether kai likes it or not, he needs a "bully body" good enough to take on the prime 6'11 shaq. As a mobile 260lb center, the chinese will love paying him a good "training buddy" sum of money in their cba just to improve their too-many inadequate centers. He wont be impoverished either by being either the main or backup center in the aussie league.

Besides, a year away from pinoy basketball for body and athleticism building will be good for him, and good for nt contribution prospects. Hindi pwedeng bilisan masyado ang preparasyon at luto ng maayos na kare-kare, litson o pritong bibe. May mamamatay ba o mababaliw kung sa 2025 pa maglaro sa nt si kai??? Hostile centers cannot f*ck around anymore with a 250-260lb kai by that time.

The sbp was actually very foolish in not developing many migrant 15-year old kouame-sized nt players. Local young bigs like gagate or demisana are not supported by year-long big-man training programs too. The sbp can require their future sponsoring teams to pay for front-loaded training costs in their contracts.

You cannot improve pinoy basketball without fielding a lot of bigs in high school and college tournaments. The love for razzle-dazzle but useless midget guard play is too intoxicating to pinoy fans . The pba is good entertainment, but it really sucks in developing prime fiba-ready bigs -- it is incompetent for that.

It is actually better for him to stop playing basketball for six months to bulk up first. Hollywood actors can do that, so can he. Daily shooting, dribbling and 5on5 drills will prevent any deterioration. Such prioritized training will neither reduce his basketball playing quality, nor income earning potential. Why his advisers are not telling him the benefits of such is worrying, as they do not likely understand basketball training priorities. Skinny wembanyama actually went this muscle-building route.

[r1ck]

If somehow Mike Philips and Kai Balunggay become eligible as locals for FIBA tournaments it does solve the solve the lack of depth of GIlas frontline. Philips can actually be a small be center and can be that powerforward energy guy like what Pingris used to be. While Balunggay can play both forward spots and I think can transition into a catch and shoot wing player just like what Baltazar was in Baldwin's Gilas team.

[ARMIR]

If somehow Mike Philips and Kai Balunggay become eligible as locals for FIBA tournaments it does solve the solve the lack of depth of GIlas frontline. Philips can actually be a small be center and can be that powerforward energy guy like what Pingris used to be. While Balunggay can play both forward spots and I think can transition into a catch and shoot wing player just like what Baltazar was in Baldwin's Gilas team.

The 2/3 spot is getting crowded with FIBA level talent,so the need for a JB takeover mode should be ending soon,the need for the 4/5 NP should be the priority soon enough.

[Metta]

Every year, there are guys like Mike P, Kai B, Villegas, Lucero, Stevens, etc waiting to be discovered in the US. If only we can discover them before 16 and convince them to get passports it solves our "big" problem.

The thing is, discovering them early is beneficial for Gilas and schools, while discovering them late is beneficial for the PBA.

[IPC]

Until ange gets exemption, it will always be brownleee for me in a CTC team.

JB's good because he can cover for Kai and maybe June Mar on defense. The ability to carry us on offense is a bonus.

After JB, that's when Ange would be preferable.

[Rds]

JB's good because he can cover for Kai and maybe June Mar on defense. The ability to carry us on offense is a bonus.

After JB, that's when Ange would be preferable.

Brownlee is past his prime at 35. He will be 39 in 4 years. Establishing a team with him as NP doesn't make sense. Finding a replacement for him will not easy as well. Finding a two-way 6'6 and up SF is not easy even in the NBA. Look at how Jordan got RHJ. A good defender but bad shooter. TC basing his team on a guy with defense and offense as Brownlee doesn't look feasible. His replacement will have a hole in his game either on offense or defense. And any hole in the replacement NPs game will break TC's system.

I think eventually, we will reach our ceiling with JB as NP as the comp gets better and as he gets older. The only hope for our team with JB as NP is a healthy Edu. With Edu's history, that's a losing gamble. It may not happen this year or next year but it will happen. Before 4 year cycle ends the ceiling of this team will be reached. I just hope they switch over to Kouame sooner before it's too late.

Edit:

Tab and even Nenad showed that we can devise an offense without an SG/SF NP. A center NP is still the most effective position. Unfortunately, it will put Kai and Junemar on the bench. But we have to accept that. If they are not really world level at this point, no point in forcing the issue.