Gilas mentor to work JuneMar, Chris together

MANILA, Philippines -  Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said with Andray Blatche not in the lineup for the FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon, 6-8 Christian Standhardinger has big shoes to fill and a priority is to work with JuneMar Fajardo to form a strong frontline combination.

“Dray’s the best stretch four in the business,” said Reyes. “Chris has to improve his mid-range game, his 15 to 18-foot jumpers, so he’s able to complement JuneMar like Dray. In Taipei, Chris proved he’s a fighter. That’s what we like about him. It won’t be easy to replace Dray who can hit from beyond the arc. But Chris can do other things, too. We’ll get him to work closely with JuneMar at practice.”

Gilas’ first practice for Lebanon is set in the Meralco Gym at 8 tonight. Expected to show up are the 12 players whom Reyes named to play in the FIBA Asia Cup – Fajardo, Standhardinger, Jio Jalalon, Matthew Wright, Carl Bryan Cruz, Gabe Norwood, Raymond Almazan, Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, Japeth Aguilar, R. R. Pogoy and Jayson Castro.

Reyes said he waited for Blatche’s confirmation up to the last minute. “As of the deadline of 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Dray couldn’t confirm a decision so we had to submit a lineup without his name,” he said. “We really don’t know the reason why.” There was speculation that Blatche wouldn’t confirm because of security concerns. A spokesperson from Blatche’s camp said an official statement will be issued soon.

Reyes said he’s not shutting the door on Blatche returning to play for Gilas in the future, particularly during the FIBA Asia-Pacific home-and-away qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup. “It will depend on Dray himself and how Chris does in Lebanon,” said Reyes. “We were assured verbally that Dray would play with us in Lebanon but nothing was ever confirmed in writing. So I think there was intent for Dray to play.”

Reyes said a revelation in the Jones Cup was Cruz who started in eight of nine games in Taipei. “Carl will be our back-up for Gabe as a wing defender,” said Reyes. “He’ll need to work on his quickness to keep in step with the Korean wings who like to come off screens but he’ll be fine defending against the wings from Qatar and Iraq. We’re lucky that Carl is in Alaska’s reserve list so we were able to request for Carl and Calvin from the Aces. Carl’s also a deadly spot-up shooter so he could be a stretch four, too.”

Jalalon’s inclusion gives Reyes a second option at point guard behind Castro without slowing down tempo. Reyes said another Star player Allein Maliksi was in his wish list for the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Standhardinger and Cruz are the only players listed in both rosters for Lebanon and Kuala Lumpur. They’ll play first at the FIBA Asia Cup on Aug. 8-20 then follow to the SEA Games which are scheduled on Aug. 19-31. Standhardinger was cleared by FIBA to play for Gilas only as a naturalized player. Although his mother Elizabeth Santos Hermoso is a Filipina, Standhardinger was born in Munich and got his Philippine passport after turning 16. Before arriving in Manila to join Gilas last month, the 28-year-old Standhardinger had visited here twice.