LOTS of eyebrows were raised when comebacking Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin named Kai Sotto last Tuesday to the 12-man roster that will battle South Korea in the third window of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.
The jury was still out on the 7-foot-3 center’s inclusion to the squad that clashed with the Koreans last night behind closed doors at the Angeles University Foundation Sports and Cultural Center, but Baldwin defended his decision, saying Sotto has what it takes.
“Kai was able to join us in a previous training bubble when we were preparing to play the games in Doha, Qatar,” Baldwin said. “We accomplished a lot with him during that time but unfortunately those games were cancelled.”
The American-New Zealander tactician said Sotto easily adapted to his system.
“Naturally, we were worried about how much of that will stay with him, but the coaching staff was pleased to find out that he has great retention of information,” Baldwin said.
“There is a solid foundation of knowledge from his past experience with us that helped him process the new information we introduced since then.”
Baldwin admitted the plan was to use Sotto sparingly.
“Not being able to do any basketball activities for 14 days will take its toll on anyone so there will be a bit of load management from our part for Kai,” Baldwin said.
“He did his best to stay in shape during that period but it’s a very quick turnaround. We don’t want to rush him back because, as we’ve said in the past, we cannot risk our long-term goals for short-term gains.”
Sotto, who signed a multi-year contract with Adelaide in the National Basketball League of Australia last April in his bid to fan his hopes of becoming the first homegrown Filipino to gain NBA foothold, is worthy of his spot, according to Baldwin.
“There will be parts in the game that we will only use systems that we have been able to indoctrinate him into, but the coaching staff believes that the positives gained by his inclusion will far outweigh the negatives,” he said. “We think he’s ready and he deserves it.”
The nationals will also tangle with Indonesia tomorrow and Korea anew on Sunday.
