FIBA Asia Pacific World Cup Qualifiers

[ja.he]

Bonifacio, regardless of Yengs stature, you were actually right on this one, decision could have caused us dearly.
But na lang he realize things for last window and the other teams (although not intentional) helped us. I'm still shocked Lebanon lost twice at home to teams that didn't need to. Win

just like how we gave our two homecourt games away to kazakhstan and iran.

[IshmaelM]

https://www.spin.ph/basketball/fiba/...190227-fbfirst

What it really all boils down to

I agree. It was the first time all PBA players were available. As a Filipino we needed to know if we can make it with all qualified natural born Pinoys. The answer was no. But even then we showed for stretches we can compete even without Blatche. That will be the key to surpassing our previous World cup performance.

[analyzed]

just like how we gave our two homecourt games away to kazakhstan and iran.

The difference is both teams that beat us had reason to go for win in Labanons case other than pride they didn't

[analyzed]

Napansin namin ‘yun nung huling laro natin. Although si June Mar (Fajardo) was able to contribute, we need somebody who can demand a double team so that we can get our shooters going," the concurrent NLEX coach added.

Guiao was humble enough to admit that he needed Blatche, but insisted he didn't need to swallow his pride to recall the 32-year old naturalized Filipino.

"It wasn't about my personal pride, it was about Filipino pride," Guiao said. "I have no regrets. One way or another, we have to find out if we're ready to compete with an all-Filipino lineup. But at some point, we also have to look at ourselves in the mirror and admit that we're not [ready]."

[analyzed]

It's actually isn't a surprise, remember pre (Congress naturalize) Marcus, our teams at Asia level without ANZ were at 6th to 8th level in Asia. Now some teams like Japan and Korea (with Ratcliffe) have improved

Note also is Asia has 2 more slots in the world Cup as compared to 2014.
So while we should be happy that we made it, it shouldn't escape the fact that our All Filipino talent homegrown has not produced the output to be ready for elite Asia level.

[analyzed]

Sometimes, it's not that the players aren't good enough. With the way Philippine basketball teams have been formed (Almost always from scratch and a few weeks before the tournament), IMO, established international coaches with established systems isn't ideal. I mean, you pick your lineup from PBA stars who have established their careers from their own brand of play and expect them to fit into a brand of play they are not used to?

For example, Junmar Fajardo. How do we expect that guy to carry a team that has not much post plays and runs primarily on dribble drive? I have no question on the excellence of Tab Baldwin but I remember that game against New Zealand which we lost but, for me, we should have won. No one from the tall blacks could guard junmar at the post, even blatche was unstoppable at the post. But the coach has a system and they insisted on that until mid of the third quarter. Had the run post offense early, the tall blacks would've lost all their bigs to foul trouble.

e

Every team that loses a game has the same "What if" regrets (should have done this and that) , the thing is every time any National team plays a game is an opportunity to show how good or not we're our. The Tall Blacks went 10 -2 in the Qualifiers and in the last 4 world cups have made the 2nd round every single time (only 5 other nations have done that) , the Philippines went 7-5 in the qualifiers and has never made the 2nd round of the World cup for over 50 years now! So granted the difference in both teams players is marginal and just the same as you might be suggesting (even if there is a significant discrepency in Div 1 and Euro league imports) , then the Tall Blacks with same talent level must just be overachieving consistently regularly ( and just some how consistently make the right decisions (tsamba palagi or tamang decision always) . I'm just using the Tall Blacks as an example and i know the reaction this will get, but it's true for any National team that consistently plays normally better , so it's not about the Tall Blacks that is the point, but the point is teams that consistently on average do better like Iran and korea than a lower achieving team like (Tiapei or the Philippines) really has to be attributed to in general they have better player outputs... We can't continue to always be making the same excuses. Schedule, system , style of play, coaches decisions etc etc , every single national team has to deal with those same problems , no one is exempt. So if one national team happens to on average do better, they simply have to be given credit that their players and program in general is better ! it's really that simple.. no more excuses. We are where we are simply because that is the level of quality basketball we have (period) , it's not bad actually ranked around 6th to 8th in the region.

[Juan Lun]

I think you are missing my point. It's not a what if, I just cited that game against New Zealand because that was a perfect example of what I'm trying to point out - A case of a great coach who has a great system but was on a wrong situation. I don't think anyone can question Baldwin's coaching and his system, he's great and the success of the NZ team he coached proved it. But why did the RP team he coached failed? I would say NZ just happened to have the much better players if I didn't watch the whole game and saw that it was a game we could've won. From start they insisted on running the same plays outside until mid third quarter where finally rhey run more plays at the post with junmar and he was scoring and getting fouled but it was already too late to mount a comeback. This is why junmar, our best player outside of blatche has not been that productive - a post player playing in a system that's predicated on the guards. So, i was suggesting that since our national teams don't get enough time to prepare, we need a coach who can, and is willing to adjust to the best materials available to him, not the "old" players being forced fit to a systema. AND, that if the likes of tab Baldwin is going to coach our national team, he has to start with our age group, specially the players being eyed to represent us in 2023. Those players are young enough to be molded to fit inro the system and there is ample time to do that

I would love to see more post up plays for JuneMar specially against smaller sized teams like Korea but I don't think that incorporating a local coach like Leo Austria and bringing his PBA, SMB system to Gilas would make us more competitive.

I just watched the replay of Gilas vs New Zealand @ 3rd quarter and what prevented us from mounting a comeback was our defense. Too many open 3s and easy back door cuts. As much talented as JuneMar was offensively at the post, his defense really has much to be desired and opposing teams are taking advantage of it

[allan_373]

I observed that in an International competition like FIBA competing teams uses the 3 points shots well,Philippines should hire consultants about this matter.

[zairex]

I think you are missing my point. It's not a what if, I just cited that game against New Zealand because that was a perfect example of what I'm trying to point out - A case of a great coach who has a great system but was on a wrong situation. I don't think anyone can question Baldwin's coaching and his system, he's great and the success of the NZ team he coached proved it. But why did the RP team he coached failed? I would say NZ just happened to have the much better players if I didn't watch the whole game and saw that it was a game we could've won. From start they insisted on running the same plays outside until mid third quarter where finally rhey run more plays at the post with junmar and he was scoring and getting fouled but it was already too late to mount a comeback. This is why junmar, our best player outside of blatche has not been that productive - a post player playing in a system that's predicated on the guards. So, i was suggesting that since our national teams don't get enough time to prepare, we need a coach who can, and is willing to adjust to the best materials available to him, not the "old" players being forced fit to a systema. AND, that if the likes of tab Baldwin is going to coach our national team, he has to start with our age group, specially the players being eyed to represent us in 2023. Those players are young enough to be molded to fit inro the system and there is ample time to do that

I agree its our preparation time and player availability and changes in line up is disrupting our chemistry which other teams have. Look at our game vs Korea in Asian Games 2018. Yes we have JC but Korean has been been practicing for over 3 months. Their team composition is solid and has been playing together majority around 5 years. But still the game was close through out. That signifies talent level we have. considering we don't have Castro, Junemar, Japhet, Romeo, Lassiter in that line up. Players like J. Yap, Ahamisi, Belga, Tiu and Taulave should not have been considered unless in this scenario.

Give Gilas 4 months of training, best players and tons of tune up games and lets see how good we really are.

[interxavierxxx]

I agree its our preparation time and player availability and changes in line up is disrupting our chemistry which other teams have. Look at our game vs Korea in Asian Games 2018. Yes we have JC but Korean has been been practicing for over 3 months. Their team composition is solid and has been playing together majority around 5 years. But still the game was close through out. That signifies talent level we have. considering we don't have Castro, Junemar, Japhet, Romeo, Lassiter in that line up. Players like J. Yap, Ahamisi, Belga, Tiu and Taulave should not have been considered unless in this scenario.

Give Gilas 4 months of training, best players and tons of tune up games and lets see how good we really are.

IIRC Korea started their training since January.

There was a coaching change but the system they ran is relatively the same.

[zairex]

IIRC Korea started their training since January.

There was a coaching change but the system they ran is relatively the same.

Your right, my bad. They started training in January.

Just imagine if we can start training that long how good we can be. We will definitely will check Koreans Off rebounding that killed us in the Asian Games.

[interxavierxxx]

Your right, my bad. They started training in January.

Just imagine if we can start training that long how good we can be. We will definitely will check Koreans Off rebounding that killed us in the Asian Games.

And better pressure defense.

The Korean team doesn't shoot well when under pressure, which is something the Iranians took advantage of in the last Asian Games.

[xenoloxy]

IMO, half the lineup for the 2019 WC should be composed of young players who are being eyed to represent in 2023 WC which we are hosting. The other half will be Blatche and veteran internationalists who are still young enough to still play in 2023. Fajardo, Rosario, Romeo, Parks, Pogoy and Clarkson if he gets the green light to play as a local. Japeth Aguilar will still be considered even if he's already around 30 due to the lack of bigs. Shoo-ins from the young turks will be AJ Edu and Remy Martin since both, IMO, are already capable to contribute significantly. The other prospects are Kai Sotto, Juan Gomez di Liano, thirdy Ravena, Kobe Paras, Robert Bollick, Karl Tamayo and Dave Ildefonso.

This will not be the strongest we can form but I believe that our best chance to really compete is in 2023 because, beside that we are hosting, the talent and size of the new batch is unprecedented. First, you have Kai Sotto whose ceiling is the sky, AJ Edu whose becoming the bigman defensive specialist we have never had, Remy Martin who is an athletic version of Terence Romeo, JGDL who at 19 already showed he can compete against big boys in Dubai, Dave ildefonso has the strength and size of his dad but has the skills of a guard and IF Kobe Paras matures, with his size, athleticism and strength, I still believe he can be one of our assets in international competitions.

The headcoach will be Tab Baldwin

This I agree with. The athleticism of this batch is insane compared to the current one.Imagine AJ's offensive game when he gets more minutes next season (all the current seniors will be gone). I'm sure kobe will redeem himself. Carl tamayo will hopefully be taller and more versatile (playing 2,3,4). I also think geo chiu will be a better Isaac Go once TAB starts coaching him. Plus the young players will have valuable experience they can bring to their current teams.

[ros]

World Cup isn't the time to experiment on our very young core for 2023. Why take a gamble on our only possible chance to qualify for Olympics even if it's slim. World Cup is the culmination of what Gilas did for 2 years, it would be anticlimactic to use the World Cup as a "leveling up" tournament for our young core. If we were really that serious on acquiring experience for our 2023 core then they should have been the one playing in the Asian qualifiers. You can't just throw them on the big boys highest stage without prior experience.

Besides our team will only most likely have 3 games in the World Cup. There are small pocket tournaments that the future Gilas can participate, they should regularly participate in Jones Cup and then find other tournaments where they will play yearly until 2023 and also play the Asian qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup since we don't need it.

Please be realistic.

[yogaflame]

Japeth and Edu will be our Gallinari and Bogdanovic, stoppers because of there length, height and athleticism. That is why we need Edu for his defensive skills and versatility in defense. The tall shooters and wing players will be our biggest problem that is why we need Edu now. Troy and Eram are not that versatile to chase down tall shooters. Even Fajardo, we cannot ask him to defend perimeter players because he is not that good in defending perimeter players and switching.