Gilas pool of 24 looms as option

MANILA, Philippines – SBP president Al Panlilio said yesterday a proposal to name a Gilas pool of 24 players to include a candidate from each PBA team is under review and if it is approved, a split draft will likely take place when the pro league conducts the annual rookie selection on Oct. 30.

Panlilio met with the PBA ad hoc committee of PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa, former PBA chairman Patrick Gregorio of TNT KaTropa, PBA governor Alfrancis Chua of Barangay Ginebra and PBA governor Atty. Mamerto Mondragon of Rain Or Shine last Thursday to discuss a joint plan of action involving the SBP and PBA with regard to forming the national team in anticipation of the new FIBA competition format to kick in next year.

Panlilio said nothing is final at the moment but he plans to submit a firm proposal to the PBA Board of Governors at a meeting next Thursday. Another point of discussion is who will be the next Gilas head coach. Panlilio said while the SBP will decide the composition of the pool of 24 and the next head coach, it’s critical to get inputs from the PBA.

Tab Baldwin, who has a five-year contract with Gilas, is an option to be retained as the national team coach but Panlilio said the SBP is open to consider other candidates. Baldwin took the Philippines to second place at the FIBA Asia Championships in Changsha last year and also piloted Gilas at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament here last July. He wasn’t named to coach Gilas at the recent FIBA Asia Challenge in Tehran and the job went to Josh Reyes instead. Baldwin is now coaching Ateneo in the UAAP senior men’s division.

According to Panlilio, Mondragon suggested each PBA team to contribute one player for the pool of 24. If a split draft is held for Gilas players, each PBA team will also be expected to cede its Cadet pick for the pool. The proposal of each PBA team contributing one veteran to the pool, however, may or may not be adopted particularly as some clubs carry several Gilas players on their rosters. TNT, for instance, has Gilas veterans Jayson Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo, Larry Fonacier, Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, Troy Rosario, Kelly Williams and Ryan Reyes in the KaTropa lineup. The proposal to contribute one player to the pool may be flexible.

Panlilio said the proposal was meant to give every PBA team a chance to participate in Gilas with at least a veteran in the pool. He said the initial plan of keeping intact a Gilas team made up of Cadets for the long haul may not work. “Perhaps, the ideal formula is to form a team composed of a mix of Cadets and PBA veterans,” said Panlilio. “That appears to be more workable. If you look at the lineups of Iran, China, Chinese-Taipei and the other teams at the recent FIBA Asia Challenge, you’ll notice a mix of young blood and experienced players. Jordan coach Sam Daghlas told Josh his team had little time to prepare – only five months. Can you imagine they had five months of training while we only had two to three weeks? And Sam was complaining.”

Panlilio said both the SBP and PBA are committed to working together towards finding a long-term solution. He said the SBP has given the PBA a schedule of FIBA tournaments next year so a timetable could be laid out to avoid a conflict.

“The first home-and-away window will be in November 2017,” said Panlilio. “That would be the start of the qualifying process for the 2019 FIBA World Cup and eventually, the 2020 Olympics. “With that schedule, two PBA conferences will not be affected. In April or May, there will be the SEABA Championships.  We’ll probably go with a young Cadets team with a naturalized player for that so we may not tap PBA veterans. Then, there will be the FIBA Asia Challenge in September like the recent tournament in Tehran. That will be the qualifying for the home-and-away series so it’s important. It’s a matter of finding a way to maximize the competitiveness of our national team relative to the tournament at hand. I think it’s something the PBA and SBP can work out.”

The first step to take is to decide on the draft format.  There is a proposal for a common draft where the Gilas Cadets will be brought in along with the other prospective rookies in one pool. The other proposal is for a split draft where the Gilas Cadets are picked separately from the others. In either case, the Gilas Cadets will be allowed by the SBP to play for their new PBA teams while the national team is on break.

Panlilio said the exposure to PBA competition will benefit the Gilas players. If the pool of 24 is agreed on, 12 could be the Gilas players picked in the PBA draft. When the SBP needs their services for the national team, they will be pulled out from the PBA.

The second step is to decide on the national head coach. “Tab, of course, is an option,” said Panlilio. “Obviously, we will need to name the national head coach before we announce who will comprise the pool of 24. It will be the head coach who will name the 24. We want a head coach who can bring out the heart and passion of our players in Gilas, not just a head coach who knows his Xs and Os.” The third step is to name the pool of 24, if that is the proposal accepted by the SBP and PBA. If the pool of 24 is pre-selected, PBA teams will know ahead of time who among their players may be recalled for Gilas duty.