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!