Former Gilas coach: Gilas 3.0 has a chance for the medal in FIBA

Former Gilas Pilipinas coach Rajko Toroman (Wikipedia photo)

Former Gilas Pilipinas head coach Rajko Toroman is confident that the Philippines will finish on top in this year’s FIBA Asia Championships which will be held in Changsha, China next week.

Already considering that China and Iran would be difficult to beat, Toroman believes that the other Asian countries would also find it hard to get past the Philippine national team.

“They are very good, for sure they have a chance for the medal,” he said in a Spin.ph report.

“I say China is still the team to beat because they play at home, second maybe Iran because they played good in the last Jones Cup and they have been playing longer together plus they have Hamed Haddadi,” he added.

Although lacking ceiling, Toroman maintains that Gilas’ impressive speed would make it difficult for other teams to scout them.

“It will be very difficult to scout them (GilasPilipinas) because of the way they are playing, dribble and drive is a very specific system. It’s hard to defend them, they spread the floor, they have big men like [Andre] Blatche who can spread the floor,” he said in the same report.

“It will be very difficult to scout the Philippines. It’s easier to scout the other teams than the Philippines, because you scout them today, next thing you know they run a new set of plays,” he added.

Meanwhile, the national team placed third in the latest FIBA Asia power rankings, behind titleholder Iran and host China. Making it to the top five were Jordan and Taiwan.