Chot eyeing more PBA stars
Gilas Pilipinas is looking to enlist more Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) players in a bid to assemble a solid team for the FIBA World Cup next year.
Gilas head coach Chot Reyes raised the possibility of having professional cagers expand the national pool to form the strongest possible squad in the country’s hosting of the World Cup.
Save for Gilas veterans June Mar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar, the veteran tactician expressed interest in hiring several cagers like reigning PBA Most Valuable Player Scottie Thompson of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, Calvin Oftana of NLEX, and Jaime Malonzo of NorthPort.
“We are also very intrigued, we want to take a look at Oftana and Malonzo, these players and how they are going to play with Ray (Parks) and Dwight (Ramos),” Reyes said.
“We would love to have Scottie Thompson to take a look at how he could play with these players as well.”
In a previous statement, Reyes revealed that he is looking at beefing the squad with more professional players for the fourth window of the World Cup, even raising the possibility of including them in the training camp that starts on 15 August.
By that time, the PBA will be approaching the end of semifinals or early stretch of the finals.
A previous Daily Tribune report had it that the Filipino-American Malonzo had already been cleared by the International Basketball Federation to compete as a local player for the national squad.
The last time Gilas fielded a PBA-backed team was during their nightmarish Southeast Asian Games campaign in Hanoi in May.
Still, Reyes clarified that nothing is cast in stone as they have yet to finalize the lineup for the World Cup.
“Of course, right now it’s kind of too early to make any formal pronouncements and we don’t want to preempt anyone,” Reyes said.