THOUGHTS | BALTI OUT, JUAN GDL IN

Justine Baltazar is out of the 12-man Gilas Pilipinas lineup, scheduled to play Australia and New Zealand in the February–March FIBA World Cup qualifier window alongside Ginebra players RJ Abarrientos and Troy Rosario. Now, I have said how Balti is vital to the Gilas cause moving forward, and while I'm kinda pissed as to why he didn't make the lineup, I think the thought behind this makes a lot of sense.

First of all, I still think that despite the inclusion of Quentin Millora-Brown in the Final 12, the next window will be more important because, regardless of the outcome, we are going to advance to the next round. I am not counting Guam out, but if we're worried about the Boomers and the Tall Blacks, surely they must be equally stressed as well.

Also, I think Balti just suffered the same fate as Juan Gomez De Liano. I think it's best for him to just be comfortable with Tim Cone's system, and for sure, he'll get his moment.

Finally, I believe Gilas needs to have a hidden gem. If you look at the SEA Games cast when they won the gold medal, they could have asked Juan GDL to join the team, but he didn't. I can see the same case with Baltazar, a 6'9" double-double machine who will surely address our lack of size. That said, at least Juan Gomez De Liano made this window's roster.

Again, I am not hating on Abarrientos, but I guess unless either Scottie Thompson or Chris Newsome gets injured, one of them has to sit down and watch from the first row of the bench or on TV. And again, these two are the future of PH point gods, with their rivalry basically the current version of Jimmy Alapag and Jayjay Helterbrand.

And the thing about Juan GDL is that he is a better playmaker compared to the combo guard scoring goodness of Abarrientos. This is good because while Newsome has transitioned well as a combo PG, he is a natural scoring SG. Thompson may be more of a PG than an SG, but Juan GDL has better offensive awareness.

And it's not like Gilas can't switch the lineup they fielded in the Feb. 26 game. Maybe after the New Zealand game, they'll sub some players out for the March 1 Australia match. I know Tim Cone loves to use compact eight-man lineups, but having the luxury of switching players is also a good thing for Gilas.

POSSIBLE DEPTH CHART

C	JUNE MAR FAJARDO	Q. MILLORA-BROWN
F	AJ EDU	CARL TAMAYO
F	JUSTIN BROWNLEE	CALVIN OFTANA
G	DWIGHT RAMOS	KEVIN QUIAMBAO	CJAY PEREZ
G	SCOTTIE THOMPSON	CHRIS NEWSOME	JUAN GOMEZ DE LIANO

And while I keep on saying that it's okay for Gilas to go 0-2, I am also hoping for Gilas to at least close the window with at least one win. Guam may end up 0-6, but technically, the opportunity is still there to finish with a 4-2 record. This is not realistic, but it's still feasible. It's the same scenario in Group C, in which, while Iran and Jordan are 2-0, it doesn't mean Iraq and Syria will end up dead in the water from the get-go.

Since the wins are going to be carried over in the next round, Gilas should get as many wins as possible to claim one of the seven possible FIBA Asia spots.