Gilas Thoughts On the Chinese Taipei Win and the Croatia Loss

It was a wild weekend for Gilas fans, as the  senior Gilas team won resoundingly against Chinese Taipei (93-71) while the Gilas Under-17 team lost just as resoundingly to Croatia (97-75).

Here are three thoughts on the contrating fortunes of our national teams.

Thought #1 The New Gilas.
Who would have thought that the Gilas teams would finally be anchored on skilled big men, instead of talented guards? While past Philippine teams have had its share of outstanding big men, Gilas team shave almost always been undersized, and relied more on the speed and shooting ability of its guards and wings to offset our opponents' size advantage.

Lionel Messi, A Coward?

I think not!

Wonderful video from aranFE.

Thoughts on The Gilas 12 Vs Chinese-Taipei

The twelve men who will play for Gilas Pilipinas versus Chinese-Taipei has just been revealed.

Coach Chot Reyes has named Jayson Castro, Andray Blatche, JuneMar Fajardo, Terence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Troy Rosario, Japeth Aguilar, Matthew Wright, Gabe Norwood, Roger Pogoy, Jio Jalalon, and Allein Malicsi to our twelve man lineup.

Left out of the lineup are Baser Amer, Carl Bryan Cruz and Gilas Cadet Troy Rike.

Here are three thoughts on our lineup:

Thought #1 No surprises here.
The twelve named were the most obvious choices. Baser Amer is still new to the program and has not proven he should be picked over Jalalon (who wouldn't have been picked either had Kiefer Ravena been available), Carl Bryan Cruz is basically Matthew Wright-light, and Troy Rike is only with the team to further expedite his entry to future Gilas lineups.

The NBA Awards: Three Thoughts

Early this week, the NBA revealed their awardees for the 2017-2018. Here's an abbreviated list featuring several high profile categories:

Most Valuable Player: James Harden
Rookie of the Year: Ben Simmons
Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert
Most Improved Player: Victor Oladipo
Sixth Man of the Year: Lou Williams
Coach of the Year: Dwayne Casey

Here are my three thoughts to ponder on:

Thought #1 There were no surprises.
Everyone who won were the same players whom most people thought would win. Case in point: James Harden. Everyone was of the opinion at the beginning of this year that he would be the 2018 MVP. And he won despite the fact that Russell Westbrook made history again by being the ONLY player to average a triple-double (25.4pts, 10.1 reb, 10.3 assists) for two seasons (and back-to-back seasons too!). Lebron James also had better overall stats than James Harden but still, being the favorite for most of the year seemed to work  out for James Harden.

The Tragedy That Is Argentina Football.

Stale offense. A passive midfield. A disinterested defensive line.
Who are these guys? One thing is for sure...this is NOT Argentina football.

But maybe we shouldn't be so surprised. After all, this is the same team that won a ticket to the World Cup on the last day of qualifications and they needed a superhuman effort from superstar Lionel Messi to book that.

So what exactly is going wrong for Argentina? Here are three things to consider:

Thing #1 Capable Goalkeeping.
Everyone is missing Sergio Romero right now. Goalkeepers are normally the most confident (bordering on arrogant) players on the field. They need to be, given the importance of the position.

What To Expect From The FIBA U-17 World Championships

In a week's time, our gallant Batang Gilas U-17 team will be battling some of the world's best young basketball players in Argentina.

It's a pretty tough draw for the young mean of Gilas, given that they have fallen into a veritable Group of Death, with European powerhouses France and Croatia, as well as host and arguably the top South American team, Argentina.

Here are three things to watch out for in the tournament:

Thing #1 World, Meet Kai.
Kai Sotto is literally the biggest thing to happen to Philippine youth basketball. And make no mistake, Sotto is not a lumbering, unskilled big man getting by on his size. He's a mobile young man who has developed a couple of sweet post moves, is active on the boards, and a willing (if not yet very dominant) rim protector.