Injuries hamper Gilas cohesion – Baldwin

MANILA, Philippines – With the injury bug hitting Gilas Pilipinas during through the second week of practice, coach Tab Baldwin admitted that the national squad has yet to play as a team with just over a month to go before the Fiba-Asia men’s championships in Changsa, China.

“We’re not ready to play games. We’re not a polished basketball team and we’re not even really a basketball team yet, but just a roster working to develop chemistry and be a basketball team,” Baldwin told Philstar.com.

The 57-year-old Gilas coach said he’s hopeful that the break on Wednesday will refresh everybody from the national pool, and in particular, big men Asi Taulava and Sonny Thoss.

Taulava, now 42, and Thoss, have been running on fumes during the first two days of practice this week in the absence of naturalized player Andray Blatche.

The former Brooklyn Nets slotman could possibly be out for a few more days due to prostatitis. He’s currently taking medications to treat the prostate infection.

GlobalPort’s young guard Terrence Romeo is still recovering from flu virus that forced him to miss practice since Tuesday.

On the other hand, veteran Ranidel de Ocampo is still recovering from a hamstring injury, Dondon Hontiveros is also nursing a calf muscle strain, while Kelly Williams already dropped out of the roster due to MCL (medial collateral ligament) strain on his right knee.

But Baldwin isn’t pressing the panic button, citing that injuries are part of life in basketball.

“We have to be clever and smart on how we do things, keep our fingers cross that the injury bugs stay away,” he said.

“You expect some injuries to arise, but we’ve been hit recently hard.  With Kelly going out, Andray not getting in too many practices so far, I’m not gonna cry about it because it is what it is,” added Baldwin.

“We just have to keep working and get better and get these guys healthy again, then move forward.”

On the positive note, Baldwin likes the fact that the rest of the healthy players from the pool have maintained the intensity level high.

“We’re just improving.  That’s what I see. I don’t see a stagnancy,” noted the former coach of the New Zealand ‘Tall Black’, a team he led to the semifinals during the 2002 Fiba World Cup in Indianapolis, USA.

But he added that Gilas can’t afford to fall into a false sense of security.

“But we have a long way to go. It’s not time to run around and pat ourselves at the back yet because we have a lot more to improve,” stressed Baldwin.

“But the attitude is great, the willingness to work is great, the coachability is very good and these guys are easy to talk to because they wanna do things the right way,” he added.

Baldwin expects help on Thursday night’s practice with Star forward Marc Pingris and Fil-Tongan Moala Tautuaa coming in to be part of the national pool.