Gilas Pilipinas: Should Kai Sotto play in the upcoming FIBA Asia Qualifiers?

Kai Sotto kept his promise of being available every time his country calls for him. Kai returned home right away, believing that his two vaccine doses will be an advantage in terms of length of quarantine isolation time.

Those two doses ended up as no value because Kai was still required to under go the full 13-days quarantine, plus a negative result of a swab test.

If he succeeded in fulfilling those requirements, that will be the only time that Kai will be able to join Gilas and they will only have one remaining day to train with him before their first game.

This reality has prompted the Gilas executives to be cautious about playing him because they are worried that with less training, he may end up performing bad and that will hurt his confidence.

So, what do you think, should they play him?

Yes, of course. I do believe that Kai badly needs to experience real games again. I do not think he played an official basketball match this year. 

The positive effect of that alone will exceed the potential negative impact of a possible hit on his confidence.

Also, the more games he plays, the clearer the coaches and Kai's own trainer can evaluate the next path that he should take to become a legit NBA player.