YOUNG big man AJ Edu and naturalized player Justin Brownlee will be on load management when Gilas Pilipinas holds its training camp and plays in a number of friendlies in Doha, Qatar by the middle of the month.
Coach Tim Cone said Edu and Brownlee won't be suiting up for each and every day from Feb. 13-18 in order to rest, especially the 6-foot-10 center who is coming off a knee injury that kept him out during the second leg of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers late last year.
“While we’re playing this thing, we’re going to do some load management. In other words, we’re going to be careful about over-extending guys. Our thought right now is that maybe AJ only plays two games of the three in Doha, things like that,” said the Gilas mentor.
It will be the same thing for the 36-year-old Brownlee, who will be coming off a PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals series against Meralco prior to the training camp that will see the Filipinos playing the national teams of Qatar, Lebanon, and Egypt.
“Justin will play limited minutes in one of the games. We’ll try to load management guys, so that they’ll be a little fresh for Taiwan and New Zealand,” added Cone.
Gilas buildup for FIBA Asia Cup
Gilas is using the training camp as part of its preparation for the FIBA Asia Cup proper set in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from Aug. 2-17.
The Philippines still has Chinese Taipei and New Zealand in its schedule for the final window of the qualifiers on Feb. 20 in Taiwan and Feb. 23 in Auckland.
But since they have already qualified to the Jeddah tournament, Cone said the nationals will use the remaining games as well as the Doha training camp to break in Edu, who is expected to play a huge role following the ACL injury suffered by fellow big man Kai Sotto.
“AJ is really the target. We felt he needed more games before we play FIBA Asia in August,” said the shot-caller. “That’s part of what we’re looking at.”
Edu, 25, arrived in the country for the second leg of the Asia Cup qualifiers last November against New Zealand and Hong Kong.
But while he joined Gilas in its closed-door training camp at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna, he didn’t see action in the two games - which the national team both won - owing to the knee injury he suffered with the Nagasaki Velca in the Japan B.League.
“So we’re excited about bringing in AJ in the fold,” said Cone.
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