National team coach Chot Reyes on Tuesday named the 12 players of Gilas Pilipinas team who will represent and fight for the country’s pride on the upcoming 2017 FIBA Asia Cup next month in Beirut, Lebanon.
The 12 players in the official Gilas roster were publicly announced by Reyes on his Twitter account.
12 men; 12 practices; hopefully for 12 days in Beirut #LabanPilipinasPuso pic.twitter.com/AIrfSKO2GV
— Chot Reyes (@coachot) July 25, 2017
FIBA Asia’s best point guard Jayson Castro leads the 12-man lineup, together with other co-Gilas veterans like Ginebra’s Japeth Aguilar, San Miguel’s Junemar Fajardo and National team returnee Gabe Norwood.
Other emerging stars in Philippine professional league like Terrence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Jiovani Jalalon, Roger Pogoy, Matthew Wright, and Raymond Almazan were also included in the final list.
However, without the service of Andray Blatche as naturalized player, Reyes will tap Christian Standhardinger, who participated in the recently concluded 39th William Jones Cup, as reinforcement.
Gilas Pilipinas will also include the big-man and sharp-shooter Carl Bryan Cruz of Alaska to replace Allein Maliksi of Star, as one of the Gilas’ main gunners, due to one-player-per-team rule involving Jalalon – as he was already locked-in as back-up point guard.
👀 Here are the groups for #FIBAAsiaCup2017 🏆🏀
🔗 https://t.co/YPs3U1h8cA pic.twitter.com/ZHaTC72mtj
— FIBA (@FIBA) May 30, 2017
Gilas Pilipinas will take its FIBA Asia journey on August 8-20, facing the powerhouse China in Group B, together with Iraq and Qatar. | Tretch Melarpes – PTV
