With the 32nd Southeast Asian Games men's 5x5 basketball tournament less than two weeks away, Gilas Pilipinas has even more roster issues as several players from the recent PBA Governors' Cup Finals between TNT Tropang Giga and Barangay Ginebra have either dropped out or are big question marks.
Gilas resumed practice Wednesday night with only 11 players: Meralco Bolts' Chris Newsome and Aaron Black, San Miguel Beermen's CJ Perez and Chris Ross, Mike and Ben Phillips of DLSU Green Archers, Mason Amos of the Ateneo Blue Eagles, NorthPort Batang Pier's Arvin Tolentino, NLEX Road Warriors' Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, Ginebra's Christian Standhardinger and practice player Sean Anthony of NLEX.
Reyes confirmed the news that broke on Tuesday that Ginebra's Jamie Malonzo and TNT's Mikey Williams have both declined to join the pool, citing previous family commitments in the United States. Others in the pool from the two teams are either out as well or are undecided.
"Japeth (Aguilar) is a question mark," Reyes said. "Even Scottie (Thompson) is going to be a question mark. Poy (Erram) is not going to be here because he's not at 100%.
"So, hate to say it, but here we go again."
Aguilar is still recovering from a knee sprain, while Thompson is unsure because his wife is scheduled to give birth during the SEA Games. Additionally, Reyes said that Calvin Oftana tested positive for Covid and had to stay away.
Naturalized player Justin Brownlee will practice starting Thursday, Reyes said. Brownlee reportedly got his schedule mixed up and thought practice would resume a day after it actually did.
On Stanley Pringle, Reyes said he was doubtful as well. "He's still in the pool and we're talking about it as well. But if you notice, even in the finals, he was on minutes restriction. So, he's also not 100%. It's a difficult situation to put somebody who's not 100% in here because we don't know how effective that player is going to be."
Reyes understands the concern about the team's preparations in their quest to regain the SEA Games gold.
"There's nothing we can do about the injuries," Reyes said. "There's nothing we can do about the personal circumstances of each player.
"There's nothing we can do about the PBA finals that just ended last week. So, instead of worrying about those, we're just focused now on what we can do right now. The things that are in front of us to hopefully put the best team out there."
With so many new faces, Reyes said it was important to do a bit of hand-holding. As such, half of practice was a lecture on defense by assistant coach Tim Cone.
"We have to, especially at the start, take it very slowly because there's a lot of new guys. And those who are coming off the finals, we also wanted to bring them along slowly because they're obviously coming off a long rest.
"And we had a long chalk talk because after we put in some fundamentals in our offense, we wanted to make sure that everyone understands what we want to do defensively. And so, coach Tim had a long session just making everyone aware of what we want to do defensively."
The only player from the recent Governors' Cup Finals who was at practice was Standhardinger, who looked fresh despite playing heavy minutes in the grueling six-game series. The Ginebra center isn't too worried about having to catch up with the rest of the pool.
"Whatever we're doing, I kind of know already," Standhardinger said. "So I'm not too far back. The only thing that I need to refresh up a little bit more is maybe for the next practice and the practice after is the offense. To review the offense and how we do it. But even that offense I played already.
"So I kind of remember a little bit. So I don't think too far. I think I'm right where I want to be. I think I kept in a little bit better shape than I wanted to be. And now I just have to build on it."
Standhardinger also thinks the short break will work to his advantage.
"For me, with my age, I need at least a month to be back to where the game shape is. I took three days off and then I went right back at practicing. So I can keep my optimal shape a little bit better."
The team will continue daily practices for the rest of the week before setting up training camp on Sunday at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba. They fly to Phnom Penh on May 6, three days before competition starts.
"We're going to do a lot of cramming for lack of a better word," Reyes said. "So we want to have everyone there, not just for the basketball practice, but also for the team development.
"These guys are going to be playing together for the first time, so we have to do a lot of other team development activities to build the cohesion and synergy that's required to win. We expect those who make the final team will be there. If they're not there, they're not going to make the final."