Aside from being the country’s national basketball team, Smart Gilas is winning fans with its brisk ball movement and endless running powered by very young legs.
The team is undefeated in four starts and has given opposing teams more than enough headaches in a PBA Commissioner’s Cup that will breeze through a classification phase. Each team will play nine games in a single-round classification and the four bottom ranked teams will not make the playoffs.
Of course, the team has height with Marcus Douthit, Japeth Aguilar and Greg Slaughter. Douthit is a defensive dilemma in an import-laden conference where the maximum allowed height for the import is 6 feet 4 inches.
A double-double in scoring and rebounds is par for the course for the 6-10 center who can clean up the Smart Gilas misses with his long reach and excellent rebounding timing.
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But more than the ceiling, coach Rajko Toroman’s squad is playing the international game, where the accent is on moving the ball quickly to open spots.
The team has reliable shooting wingmen and guards in Marcio Lassiter, Chris Lutz, Cris Tiu and Mark Barroca, and that’s why there’s no hesitation at all to share the basketball.
Smart Gilas’ constant kick-out to an open man takes away the boring post game where big men just bulldoze their way to the basket. The kick-out to shooters does not allow the defense to set and gang up on a bull-headed big man who refuses to pass the ball out.
When they are on target, it’s hard to stop Smart Gilas, as San Miguel found out last Saturday. The Nationals hit 16 of 32 triple attempts. That’s a 50 percent clip where you’re hitting at least one of every two tries.
Of course, there are bad shooting days for the team like when it struggled against Air 21.
Smart Gilas connected on only four of 20 three-point attempts for a paltry 20 percent. But the Nationals will continue to shoot away since there is Douthit inside to come to the rescue.
The thing about gunners is that they are programmed to shoot and will continue to do so on bad days or good.
Youth is the biggest asset of Smart Gilas. The team has been honed and battle-scarred in international competitions, but it has young soldiers in its ranks that can run all day. The lineup is probably not that deep but it has a core of athletic players who can play long minutes on the floor.
PBA teams that are aging or are lackluster on the court will huff and puff playing Smart
Gilas.
The team going deep into the playoffs is definitely a possibility and PBA teams will have to shore up defensively to stop Smart Gilas. But the broader consideration will have to be the team’s participation in coming international competitions.
As it is, the bench is not that deep and the constant need for PBA reinforcements is now understandable. Some work and serious table talk will have to be done down the road as Smart Gilas continues to fulfill its mandate of being the national basketball team.
Sev Sarmenta, Phil. Daily Inquirer
