Gilas Vs Iran: Grades

Photo courtesy of FIBA.com

We're giving out grades for Gilas' 73-81 loss to Iran last night, taking into consideration the player's impact and contribution versus expectations and potential.

Players will be graded from 1-10, 10 bring the highest, 1 being the suckiest, 6 as the passing grade, and incomplete for those who didn't get a fair chance to show their stuff.

The Starters:
Asi Taulava - Incomplete. The Ageless One played 5 minutes and had 3 points on 1/3 shooting from 3. But with Haddadi unexpectedly out, there was really no need for Asi's heft or experience.

Iran Downs Gilas 81-73. Three Thoughts On the Game.

It was a well played game by Gilas but Iran's considerable size on the wings as well as its late barrage of threes proved to be the big difference today.

Here are three thoughts on the game:

Thought #1 Standhardinger is the best big man Gilas has.

Yes he is. I know some people will continue to tout JuneMar Fajardo as our premier big man but I dare anybody to look at their body of work for Gilas and still say that Fajardo is the better Gilas player. 

Gilas vs Iran: The Matchups

It's game day and you know what that means.

Means we get to guess what will make or break this game for Gilas.

So here are three match ups that will be crucial for us.

Match up #1: Hamed Haddadi vs the Gilas Frontline
There is no Asian big man who poses a bigger threat that Iran's hamed Haddadi. The former NBA player is big, mobile, skilled, and a fierce competitor. With no Andray Blatche to pull him out of the shaded lane or make him work extra hard on defense, Haddadi will have lots of energy on the offensive end of things...which means our smaller-than-expected frontline will have to a harder time keeping him in check.

Gilas vs Iran: The Lineup

We finally know who the final 12 Gilas players will be for the Iran game. While the lineup features a good combination of size, speed, and shooting, you get the feeling that it still isn't the best lineup we could feature.

Some notable absentees are the Gilas players who have been meted out suspensions by FIBA, including Matthew Wright and Japeth Aguilar, both of whom are with the team in Iran.

Given all these, here are the three things to watch out for in the Gilas Vs Iran game:

Thing # 1 The New Blood
Scottie Thompson, Ian Sangalang, and Alex Cabagnot are making their Gilas debuts in the Iran game with a hell of a lot of expectations.

Alex Cabagnot had long been one of the premier guards in the PBA and had always been mentioned as a potential Gilas player. For some odd reason (cough, cough, politics), he never made it to any of the earlier Gilas teams, so this is a long overdue call up.

Ian Sangalang is a weird case, because Gilas has been trying to get him on the team for the last three years and Sangalang has never shown any interest in doing so. The myriad of injuries that always seemed to pop up whenever Gilas called was just too...fortuitous (cough, cough, politics).

Scottie Thompson earned this call up with his MVP-worthy performance in the last PBA conference. He had always been the more exciting prospect, compared to Baser Amer and Kevin Alas but given that he played for Baranggay Ginebra (cough, cough, politics) and the other two played for MVP-owned teams, he was never as viable an option.