WITH the PBA making its players available for the national pool, Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes sees a stronger line-up surrounding Jordan Clarkson for the August window of the Fiba Basketball World Cup Asia qualifiers.
Reyes expressed confidence about the chances of Gilas Pilipinas following the PBA board’s decision to make available all players from the 10 teams that won’t make it to the finals of the ongoing Philippine Cup.
[See Alfrancis Chua will be a hands-on Gilas advisor]
This despite Gilas only scheduled to practice for one week in preparation for the window where it will play an away qualifier against Lebanon on August 25 and Saudi Arabia at home on August 28.
“I think we will have a stronger roster of players. But again, sasabihin na naman ng mga tao na nagpapalusot ako or nage-excuse, but we will only start practice on August 15 or August 16," said the concurrent TNT coach.
"We have seven days, one week practice before our game against Lebanon, who is the Fiba Asia Cup silver medalist. While we think that we have a pretty good, solid line-up of players, we are still going to suffer from lack of practice.
"But it’s fine. I’m very happy with it,” added Reyes.
Reyes and the rest of coaching staff that includes Barangay Ginebra mentor Tim Cone are set to meet on Saturday to discuss who will comprise the Gilas Pilipinas pool for the next window.
Clarkson is expected to arrive three days after the team convenes on August 15.
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