Team Pilipinas 12-Man Roster For 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers vs Team Iran

Coach Yeng Guiao has finally announced his 12-man roster for the upcoming second round of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.

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For their opening game in the next phase of tournament, team Pilipinas will go head-to-head versus the team Iran which is still fresh from snagging the silver medal in the just concluded 2018 Asian Games. Iran will be led by former NBA player who played with Memphis Grizzlies, Hamed Haddadi.

Haddadi who is a 7 foot and 2 inches big-man was supposed to be match with our own giant, Greg Slaughter. However, in this game at least, the clash of the titans won’t be happening as Slaughter was not on the final list due to an injury he suffered prior to his official inclusion to the national squad.

Scottie Thompson, Alex Cabagnot and Ian Sangalang will make their team Pilipinas debut. Thompson is still fresh from receiving one of the most prestigious award in the PBA which is the 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Final MVP, he can use that skills especially his rebounding against the towering heights of their opponent.

Christian Standhardinger will serve as the team’s naturalized player and for now Stanley Pringle will be watching in the sideline. As reported earlier, his talents will be utilized later against team Qatar which will be played in a closed door game back in the Philippines.

Marcio Lassiter will make his return as a member of the team Philippines. Lassiter is one of the players who was selected to be part of the Gilas 1.0. He helped the national squad to bag the gold medal in the 2011 FIBA SEABA Championship in Jakarta and bronze medal in the 2011 William Jones Cup.

Beau Belga, Raymond Almazan and Gabe Norwood will also be coming back. The three Elasto Painters are the remaining players taken from their squad who made appearance in the 2018 Asian Games. The others were James Yap and Maverick Ahanmisi.

Asi Taulava and JP Erram will be the other forward/center in the team apart from Almazan. During the Asian Games, these three players demonstrated their long range skills. They continue to need it in order to pull out Haddadi from the post and give their guards more room to operate.

Paul Lee will continue to serve the country. His way-way beyond the arc is needed to keep the game close as what coach Yeng Guiao wanted to happen to set an upset in Iran.

Allein Maliksi is the remaining player from the Gilas Pilipinas lineup that got involved in a brawl last July. His long range shooting is also necessary to force the opponent’s defense to spread.