MILOS Teodosic marks his return to the Serbian national team at the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, presenting a daunting challenge for young Gilas Pilipinas guards SJ Belangel and RJ Abarrientos.
Gilas coach Tab Baldwin reminded his wards that they should relish the opportunity of testing their mettle against a player of Teodosic's caliber, but also to gain lessons from the July 1 game against his Serbian team.
"When you play against a player like Teodosic, you both want to compete. You're desperate to test your skills against a player who's played at a level that Milos has and is a caliber of a player he is," said Baldwin, who expects Gilas to be without premier guard Dwight Ramos for the Belgrade OQT due to a groin injury.
"But the other thing we keep alluding to is we want to learn lessons. We wanna realize that you’re going up against a master of the game and there are things that you can learn from the big picture when you go back and review the video, but also you want to test yourself and what you can learn from possession-to-possession."
Teodosic, 34, is one of the most decorated members of the Serbian national team and was at the forefront when Serbia won the silver medal in the 2014 Fiba World Cup in Spain and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The 6-foot-5 court general has carved a reputation as one of the best skippers to come out of Europe, as evidenced by his success for Olympiacos in Greece and CSKA Moscow in Russia, where he won a Euroleague title, before his two-year NBA stint with the Los Angeles Clippers. He currently plays for Virtus Bologna in Italy.
"Everything he does well, you try and counter as quickly as you can. And we do that in the scouting reports, we try to prepare our players. But there’s nothing like actually going out there and standing toe-to-toe with some of these Serbian players," said the American-Kiwi mentor.
'Learning experience'
Baldwin said Gilas players should seize the opportunity to learn not just from Teodosic but from the whole Serbia team in the July 1 (Manila time) game.
"There is a level of excitement for our players and that there's also a great challenge. And I think as long as we respect those thought process, I think the players will enjoy the process but they’ll also find out a lot of themselves and what they need to learn and to improve themselves," he said.
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