What's ahead for Smart Gilas?

Smart Gilas put a stamp on the history books by booking a seat in the FIBA World Championships in Spain on 2014 with a second place finish at the FIBA Asia Tournament. 

Smart Gilas was clearly the underdog of the championship game against Iran, and Iran proved why they are the Champions of Asia. Haddadi was in his dominant self scoring 29 points and grabbing 16 rebounds, along with 2 blocks. He also had a lot of help from other starters. 

The good thing about this loss, is that we were able to expose the weakness of Smart Gilas. The general manager and coaching staff can use these weaknesses to prepare for next year's FIBA World Championships.

Here are a few things Smart Gilas can look up to:

Marcus Douthit against Japan's Sakuragi and Hiejima

1. Personnel. It is quite obvious that the team lacks size. That's why we have acquired the services of Douthit. But unfortunately, Douthit has passed his prime and his last tournament should probably be next year to finish off his stint in a Philippine uniform. As soon as now, Smart Gilas should be molding a replacement for Douthit. A big man who can really man the middle and provide a low-post threat. The replacement should be young enough to be with the team for a possible long term stint. The addition and improvement of Greg Slaughter can be a good back-up center in the next tournaments.

2. Offense. There are a lot of offensive sets by Smart Gilas the boggles my mind. There are no weak side or off the ball screens set-up by the team. I know coach Chot is a great coach, but I think he can add some weak side ball screens aside from the pick-and-roll of the ball handler to have some variety. I am also concerned about the spacing of the team. There were times when the players are concentrated to one side of the court which made the offense stagnant. There were also times that the players don't know the sets they were playing, that resulted to bad possessions. I am also thinking why does the power forward feeds the post instead of the PG or SG in previous games? Smart Gilas tried to outrun Iran in the first half whenever there was a chance, I wonder why they somehow slowed down in the second half.

3. Defense. Knowing we have a size disadvantage in the center position, I was surprised that the team didn't double team Haddadi often. I also mentioned in my previous blogs that Smart Gilas have problems defending the pick and roll and Iran demolished Smart Gilas' defense with their pick and roll. I was really surprised that through out the game, no adjustments were made on defending the pick and roll. Since Iran was shooting miserably from three, why not go under the screen and dare their shooters to take it. I'd rather die from three point shooting than letting Haddadi wreak havoc in the low block. Smart Gilas were also not used in zone defense, so they were caught off position when using zone defense. They also need to improve on their discipline in defense. Gary David's unsportsman like foul was clearly a bone head play. Your team is trying to make a run then make a stupid play like that. I think that play really put the team to the grave.

All in all, Smart Gilas already made the country proud with a second place finish. I expected them were they are and they deserve it. But there are a lot of things to be done in order to compete on the bigger stage, the World Basketball Championships. Good luck!

Fearless prediction, who will win it all?

The quarterfinal match-ups are set. A set of miracles have put Smart Gilas into the top spot of Group E. One, because Qatar defeated Chinese Taipei. Two, Smart Gilas overcame a dreadful game to defeat Hong Kong. Here is how the quarterfinals look like:

Like "March Madness", here's my prediction of the tournament.

QUARTERFINALS

• Iran vs Jordan - winner IRAN
• Chinese Taipei vs China - winner Chinese Taipei (yes, China will bow down)
• Philippines vs Kazakhstan - winner Philippines
• Korea vs Qatar - winner Korea

SEMIFINALS

• Iran vs Chinese Taipei - winner IRAN
• Philippines vs Korea - winner Philippines (very tough decision, really 50-50 for me)

FINALS

• Iran vs Philippines - winner IRAN

Iran's size and team play will be too much for any team, that's why I think they'll win it all. But hey! I was wrong in my prediction for a Philippines vs China match. Everything is possible at this stage.

Gilas vs China Quarterfinal Game Imminent. Who will win?

Smart Gilas scores another victory against Qatar, 80-70. This victory somewhat lands a quarterfinals ticket with the most possible foe, China.

Smart Gilas is expected to place 2nd in Group E, and China is expected to place 3rd in Group F. Thus a match-up between them is inevitable. So who can we expect as the victor in this game? We need to look into the performance of the two teams in the competition in order for us to make an evidence based assumption.

Smart Gilas is likely to place second with a possibility of only one loss. China is likely to place 3rd with two losses. Based on their performance in the past games, Gilas victories against Japan and Qatar are impressive given these teams are not push overs, and the loss to TPE, was a game stolen by TPE from Gilas with a come from behind victory.Smart Gilas has been playing well that's why they are in 2nd place.

Now China. China lost to Korea and Iran, and had a nail-biter against Kazakhstan. Their wins are against, no disrespect, weak teams like Malaysia and India. Based on the tournament, China seems to be struggling against quality opponents. So, given these performances I give Smart Gilas the edge.

In terms of match-ups. Definitely size is in favor of China and Smart Gilas had difficulty defending bigger players as seen in previous games. China also has a legit NBA veteran of Wang. So China has definitely the edge.

My verdict, I expect a neck and neck game against these two teams and hopefully we will be treated with a great game. Who will win? China might be bigger, but due to their struggles in the tournament I'm banking on Smart Gilas.

Impressive Gilas overwhelms Japan

After a heartbreak loss to TPE, Smart Gilas bounced back with a 90-71 victory over Japan. This is the type of Smart Gilas team Filipinos are expecting, and we were treated by a great team performance.

First, offense. The team shot a remarkable 49.2% from the field and 60% (12/20) from long range. Thanks to the great shooting from Chan and De Ocampo (who made a statement why he belongs to the team). Ball sharing, they are pretty consistent sharing the ball. Ball movement has always been good, this resulted for 24 assists in the game. Including two nice assists by De Ocampo to Aguilar that rocked the arena.

Next, defense, the team was able to hold Japan to 37.1% shooting and also forcing 19 turnovers. The only thing positive for Japan is their rebounding. They out-rebounded Gilas 48-30, including 21 offensive rebounds. However their poor shooting and turnovers hurt them throughout the game.

All in all, it was a good team effort by Smart Gilas.

My observation is that, Gilas still have troubles defending the the screen and roll. The guards are very much concerned on the three-point shooting that they don't go under the screen. This results to collapses by the defense and players become out of position in these scenarios. This is a concern because many teams use this offense. Hopefully Gilas can become better defending the screen and roll in the upcoming games. Offensively, their own version of screen and roll is much better compared when they were against TPE. However, they can still improve on that. They still have not put a shooter at the corners to spread the floor more efficiently. Douthit was much better this time and if he can deliver the same numbers every game, I like the team's chances.

So keep it up Smart Gilas. Laban!

Chinese Taipei handed Smart Gilas first loss.

TPE handed the Phils its first loss in the FIBA Asia Tournament, 84-79. I will directly point out why Smart Gilas lost this game.

I think a coaching error was the main reason why the team lost. During the run of the TPE team, their bigmen outplayed the bigmen of Smart Gilas. De Ocampo was clearly off. He was very slow and the opponent was able to exploit that. The coaching error came when Coach Chot was not able to adjust to it right away, and he countered (very late) with a two point guard lineup which back fired.

Defensively, Smart Gilas have shown problems defending the pick and roll. That's what TPE run almost every possession that enabled them to get back in the game and win eventually. I also noticed players helping one-pass away that resulted to open looks by TPE.

Offensively, I already noticed no weak side movement. They were running screen and rolls badly, and the team goes on a five-out when the screen and roll failed.The result, bad shots. I already said they were standing around too much in numerous possession. They are all waiting for that dribble penetration to happen. I think Coach Chot doesn't like to run "horns" (which I suggested in my first blog), I think Douthit is not much of a threat at the post where he used to be. The team shot poorly at 37%, mainly because of poor shot selection and execution. Team spacing is also ridiculous. There was even a possession wherein all players are on one side of the court. The team has yet to exploit the corner three.  Maybe they can put the shooters at the corners, because I saw a lot of 3s taken at the wings.

Hopefully this is a nice wake-up call for the team and coach Chot. Good luck to next games. Keep fighting...

Smart Gilas wins over KSA

It was a very entertaining game for Filipinos to see our very own Smart Gilas got its first win in the FIBA Aisa tournament.

The first thing I noticed was the great ball movement by the team. Making extra passes to hit the open man. Japeth was great in a stretch where he blocked three shots. Marc Pingris was also impressive with his blue collar work. Smart Gilas dominated the boards with 52 rebounds. All in all for it was a great team effort for Smart Gilas and congratulations in their first win.  This win is a great confidence boost for them, making them feel they can take anybody.

In a basketball fanatic point of view, there were some issues in the team that I noticed that when facing a tougher team may lead to disaster.

First thing, offense. Even though the ball movement was good, I saw a lot of standing around just waiting for the pass. I didn't see any weak side action or weak side movement, the only thing that freed up the man with the extra pass is when a dribble penetration happen. Maybe in the next coming games, we can see some weak side screens. Due to this waiting for the pass, the offense was stagnant a bit, and the opponent was able to close out even with the extra pass. I would also recommend for the team to use "Horns" in their sets to maximize the size of their centers. The team shot 42% in the field, which is somewhat acceptable but not great. LA and Marcus both committed 5 turnovers, so they need to take care of the ball especially LA.

Next,  defense. Smart Gilas was good in their defense putting KSA to 26% shooting from the field. You might be asking, 26% shooting from the field and good defense only? That's because Smart Gilas gave a total of 38 free throws to KSA, and 25 were converted. Thanks to some bonehead plays fouling the opponents at the back court when the team is in penalty. For me, a foul is not good defense.

I think this wraps it up, and I hope Coach Chot can address these issues when we face powerhouses like Iran and China.