The three biggest snubs of the 2019 Gilas Pool

(c) PBA Media Bureau

The 19-man pool of our national team in basketball for the 2019 FIBA World Cup was already revealed!

Leading the way is our naturalized player, Andray Blatche. He will be back-up by Christian Standhardinger and Stanley Pringle. Even Jordan Clarkson was included, although we are still fighting that he will be considered as a local player.

The fifteen players that were named to fight over 11 spots are June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Japeth Aguilar, Troy Rosario, Roger Pogoy, Mark Barroca, Paul Lee, Poy Erram, Beau Belga, Raymund Almazan, Gabe Norwood, CJ Perez, Robert Bolick, Kiefer Ravena, and Matthew Wright.

In this article, let us name the three biggest snubs from the pool. Of course, we will not include those players who already gave their reasons for not playing for Gilas.

JAVEE MOCON
Without Marc Pingris, Scottie Thompson and Calvin Abueva in the line-up, our national team is lacking an energetic guy that can pump up the crowd. CJ Perez may have what it takes to do that but he is more of an athletic beast than a super-hardworking player.

That is why I was hoping Mocon would have been considered. Just look at his numbers this conference of 11.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.1 steals and 36% 3FG per game. Other than his stat-filling style, he also has a legit three-point shooting compared to Perez, Thompson and Calvin.

TERRENCE ROMEO
He wanted to play for our national team. Last year, coach Yeng Guiao and his coaching staff also decided not to include him in the November 20, 2018 and December 3, 2018 window. They said that the guard rotation of the pool was already loaded.

Without Jayson Castro this year, I think there is a big hole to fill that Terrence should have been included. Other than Kiefer Ravena and Stanley Pringle, there is no guard in that pool that can create his shots consistently in the international scene.

IAN SANGALANG
It seems like Ian was not considered for the pool and that is mind-boggling. Yes, he doesn't have the physicality to play center in the World Cup but looking at our frontline options, Ian would have been the best mid-post scorer. He is also more agile on the perimeter than Almazan and Erram. Nonetheless, I hope Ian take this as a challenge to improve more, especially his body.