If the PBA agrees to loan its players to Smart Gilas again, the players must train with the team for at least three months if the national team hopes to get a better result in the FIBA-Asia Championship next year. Smart-Gilas Pilipinas’ Serbian coach Rajko Toroman said an honest-to-goodness preparation is the key to their success in the tournament slated in September in Wuhan, China.
In the previous Guangzhou Asian Games, the PBA stars Asi Taulava of Meralco, Kelly Williams of Talk ’N Text and Sol Mercado of Rain or Shine reinforced the team but had little practice with the squad before the competition.
Lock of cohesion has been cited as one reason why the Gilas team finished sixth.
“That was our problem in the Asian Games,” Toroman said. “The PBA guys only practiced with Smart-Gilas just a couple of games. In the end, we had problems running our
system.”
“We want the PBA players to be with the team for at least three months to prepare for FIBA-Asia. Hopefully was can have them in 10 friendly (international) games,” added Toroman.
The one-time mentor of Iran said it’s too early to tell who they want to get in the PBA, although he mentioned there’s a possibility for Taulava, Williams and Mercado to
return to Gilas and get a couple more to reinforce the squad.
“Yes it’s possible, but I really can’t tell. We’ still have to discuss. The only sure thing is we need help again from the PBA,” said Toroman.
“We need to strengthen on the position four (power forward) and probably on the position one (point guard). Kelly was really a big help for us in position four in the Asian
Games,” he added.
“There will be no tryouts. No way. We’ll choose the players and they will be included to Smart-Gilas.”
PBA Commissioner Chito Salud said that forming a strong RP team is one of the three important agendas that the PBA owners will discuss when they convene on Jan. 25 at the
Club Filipino in San Juan.
Waylon Galvez, Manila Bulletin
