Hot take: Does Gilas need Justin Brownlee?
HERE’S a take so hot I need to drop it in the form of a question?
Does Gilas need Justin Brownlee? The short answer is a resounding “Yes.” No team in the Philippines would not need a talent like Justin Brownlee. But we need to examine the question in context.
The prolific Ginebra resident import has begun the tedious process of naturalization in the Philippines. It’s an idea that was already thrown around at least two or three years ago. As always, in the Philippines, ideas translate into reality at the slowest possible pace.
Nonetheless, it has finally started. The Philippine basketball fandom leaps with glee, especially the Ginebra legions. Brownlee is a certified world-class talent, but we must consider these factors.
Limits of naturalization
According to FIBA rules, any country can have as many naturalized players as they can, but they can only field one per tournament. One. This fact can never be overstated.
In world class events, it is already a given that our naturalized player is Jordan Clarkson. Whenever Clarkson is available, we reserve him a slot. He has a long shot to be an NBA All-Star, and with that alone, there is no argument. We have no other talent that even comes close to Jordan Clarkson. In the future, perhaps.
While the SBP plan is to have numerous naturalized players, in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments, only one will get the nod. If Clarkson will be used for world-level tournaments like the FIBA World Cup in 2023, or if ever we qualify for the Olympics, where will Gilas use Brownlee?
Is Brownlee the ideal choice?
You can’t choose your national players. You only get to pick among those that are considered FIBA locals. It’s not even an issue of lineage, as the cursed Hagop rule negated that. We can only hope that we can have something like what Greece had with the Antetokounmpos (and we could with the family of AJ Edu), but that is a one in a million chance.
What you can choose is your naturalized player. This is the one slot you can control.
As a race, Filipinos are not as tall as Caucasians, or as athletic as the Afro race. This is why Kai Sotto has been celebrated, almost to a fault. And when we talk about tall and athletic, the list is limited to Japeth Aguilar. That’s why AJ Edu’s injury is tragic on so many levels, and why we should all root for him in his NCAA Division 1 comeback.
When it comes to FIBA locals, the only players above 6’9 for us are four: Sotto, Edu, Aguilar, and June Mar Fajardo. Hopefully, they can consider Greg Slaughter again, but the two Cebuano rival centers that reshaped basketball are often chided for not being quick or switchable enough for the international game.
That may not be an accurate observation, even hatefully biased, but the reality is that sweet-shooting teams like the Koreans and Europeans often exploit how Fajardo or any of our bigs could not stretch the defense. For the World Cup, we have only these four, and so far, there has not yet been any name coming close to joining that short list of tall guys.
So why are we not using that one slot to address this shortcoming? (pun not intended) Brownlee has battled taller players, and even won a Commissioner’s Cup Best Import award against 6’10 imports. Brownlee is awesome as a smaller guy dominating bigger foes. But what would be more awesome is a bigger guy dominating big foes.
Positioning and chemistry
The Magnolia Hotshots are the top team in the PBA today because their import fills out all their gaps. Nick Rakocevic is not the most talented import, but he is the perfect one for Magnolia.
Gilas has an excess of combo guards, and sadly, that is also Clarkson’s position. But JC’s talent makes you disregard all that. Clarkson, though, should be the only exception. Gilas’ most dire need is too clear and obvious, and in choosing a naturalized player, we should look for someone who can fill out our gaps.