INDONESIA will be without one of its key cogs come the third window of the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers in Clark.
Coach Rajko Toroman bared that Indonesian-American scorer Brandon Jawato won't be making the trip to the Philippines for the series of games from June 16 to 20.
"We have one big problem as Brandon Jawato had the surgery one month ago. For sure, he will not play on the windows but I hope that he will play on Fiba Asia," he told Radyo5's Power and Play with Noli Eala.
Jawato has only played one game for the Garuda, scoring 22 points to go with eight rebounds, and eight assists in their 90-76 win over Thailand back in November.
It's not just Jawato, as young prospect Derrick Michael Xzavierro also won't be present with the team.
The 6-foot-8 forward, who is touted to be the future of Indonesian basketball, recently committed to the NBA Global Academy and is set to join US NCAA powerhouse Gonzaga next year.
"This is a young kid which is the biggest prospect not just in Indonesia but maybe the biggest prospect in Asia," said Toroman.
"For an Indonesian player to play in Gonzaga, that's a big achievement because they have a very strong program. We can say that [Domantas] Sabonis was from this program, [Rui] Hachimura is also famous, a lot of good players have come from this program."
Despite their absences, Toroman remains confident with the experienced team that he will field, most of whom played in the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019 bannered by naturalized center Lester Prosper.
"Mostly, it will be the players who played in the SEA Games with Lester Prosper. That means that we have two good point guards in [Andakara] Prastawa and Hardianus [Lakudu]. We have domestic players in Abraham [Grahita], who is probably the best player without Brandon in Indonesia. We have Arki Wisnu, who is very experienced guy, high-quality player, and we have a Vincent [Kosasih] on the five position who will replace Lester Prosper," he said.
Nevertheless, Toroman is realist enough to acknowledge that Jawato's absence will definitely hurt Indonesia's chances in the stretch of games.
"Our expectations are not so big that our best player Brandon Jawato is injured, which is hurt us a lot," he said. "Our expectation is to not lose more than 14 points against Thailand in this moment. I don't think that, in this moment without Brandon, we can touch the Philippines and Korea.
"We'll try our best, we will do a lot of effort and for me, it's not about to win or to lose against Philippines and Korea. The point is to improve, to be more and more competitive."
Indonesia, holding a 1-2 card in Group A, will play Korea on June 17, the Philippines on June 18, and Thailand on June 20. As hosts, though, they are already qualified for the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup in August.
The bigger goal, at least for Toroman, is to book a spot in the 2023 Fiba World Cup, which Indonesia will jointly host with the Philippines and Japan.
"I think that the people from the federation have given a lot of effort to build up the team and build up the basketball on the level of what's more competitive to the other best Asian countries," he said. "We will host the Fiba Asia in August and after that, we will host also one of the groups for the World Cup."
"The dream of all Indonesian people is participating in the World Cup, but Fiba said that we are not good enough, that we have to develop the team to qualify for the World Cup. That means that we have to be in the first eight teams in FIBA Asia which looks easy but it's very, very difficult because you have there Australia, New Zealand, China, Philippines, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Japan, and Korea. We have to do some big, big surprise to qualify for the World Cup. The federation put a lot of money in this program."
That is where Xzavierro's development comes in.
"In two years, Derrick will be ready to play and contribute a lot. Now he's 17 and a half and in 2023, he will be almost 20. He will be at his best age to help the Indonesian national team and that's the biggest prospect in Indonesia," Toroman said.
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