It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk
about: how would Gilas 3.0 fare against Gilas 2.0, the acknowledged best
Philippine basketball team in recent times?
Just to be clear, we’ll be using the Gilas 2.0 lineup used
at the FIBA World Cup, which means 2014 Andray Blatche will be in play, as well
as Paul Lee but not Larry Fonacier nor Marcus Douthit.
With that, let’s start the discussion with the bigs.
GILAS 2.0
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GILAS 3.0
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Slim Andray Blatche
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Portly Andray Blatche
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JuneMar Fajardo
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Asi Taulava
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Japhet Aguilar
|
Sonny Thoss
|
Ranidel de Ocampo
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Ranidel de Ocampo
|
Marc Pingris
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Marc Pingris
|
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that Gilas 3.0’s
Pingris and de Ocampo will bring the same kind of production as the 2.0
versions of themselves did. That leaves us with six players to discuss: Slim
Blatche versus portly Blatche, Fajardo vs Taulava, and Aguilar versus Thoss.
ON OFFENSE
Featuring the Slim Blatche, Fajardo and Aguilar, Gilas 2.0’s
frontline is much better offensively than Gilas 3.0’s portly Blatche, Taulava
and Thoss.
Slim Blatche (21.2ppg) was actually the second leading
scorer in the FIBA World Cup, losing by a few decimal points to Puerto Rico’s
JJ Barea (22ppg). Fajardo, when used extensively, was also able to score in
bunches against world class opposition while Aguilar was a highlight reel
waiting to happen, specializing in fastbreak opportunities and high lobs.
Portly Blatche has been struggling to score against
relatively weak teams such as Iceland, the Netherlands and Estonia. In the MVP Cup,
when he could have and should have feasted on teams like a depleted TnT squad
and a Chinese Taipei team that played Quincy Davis for just one quarter, he
instead looked tired and totally out of shape. News reports afterwards
attribute it to his crash diet (the soup-and-salad-only kind). Even so, portly
Blatche is no match offensively to slim Blatche.
Asi Taulava and Sonny Thoss are far from being the main
scoring threats of their respective teams but both have shown that they can
still get it done. Thoss had several games in the Jones Cup when he hit spot up
jumper after spot up jumper while Taulava managed to bully his way into the
lane for several double-digit scoring games. What they don’t have is a variety
to the way they score (mostly short stabs, putbacks, short jumpers) as opposed
to the Fajardo-Aguilar tandem.
ON DEFENSE
Gilas 3.0 has the upper hand here, as Asi and Thoss make up
for their limited offensive skills with solid defensive fundamentals, something
that Fajardo and Aguilar lack.
Neither slim Blatche nor portly Blatche is much of an impact
on defense so let’s concentrate on the locals.
Asi Taulava and Sonny Thoss are among the best big man
defenders in the PBA and have a wealth of experience guarding international big
men like Iran’s Hamed Haddadi, Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Wen-Ting and even former
Chinese superstar Yao Ming.
Fajardo, on the other hand, is constantly improving as a
post defender and has the potential to be a good one, if he can be consistently
challenged by a skilled center who is just as big as him (of which there are
none in the PBA). Japhet Aguilar isn’t really very good as a post defender or
even as a team defender. He just looks like he’s a good defender because he can
occasionally catch the opposition by surprise with his leaping ability and
clock in some highlight blocks. But it’s all flash and no consistency, which is
why both coaches Rajko Toroman and, later, Chot Reyes kept him on the bench
despite Ranidel de Ocampo giving up more than 4 inches at the PF position.
ON REBOUNDING
I give Gilas 3.0 a slight edge on rebounding, as Taulava and
Thoss are better at inside positioning than Fajardo and Aguilar are.
Slim Blatche is better than portly Blatche in rebounding but
just slightly more. Besides, slim Blatche played mostly with Pingris and de
Ocampo at the PF position, which means he had to get those rebounds because the
other two had all the could handle boxing out taller opponents. Portly Blatche
is normally paired with either Taulava or Thoss so he’s not getting some of the
balls he’d normally get if Pingris or de Ocampo was there.
Taulava and Thoss are better rebounders simply because of
fundamentals. They outwork, outhustle and outbody their opponents to get to
that ball. They’re not always successful, as Iran, Russia and even South Korea
had a field day against them rebounding-wise. But if it’s a question of
Taulava-Thoss versus Fajardo-Aguilar, then Taulava and Thoss win this rebounding
battle.
Next up: The Wings
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