Kai is back
Kai Sotto, the future of Philippine basketball, is back in the country and will suit up for Gilas Pilipinas. He said in an interview after his arrival with One Sports that he will be joining the team until the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, Serbia. The national team will be against all odds in the said tournament given that the Serbians will be parading their NBA players Nikola Jokic, Boban Marianovic and Bogdan Bogdanovic among others.
In a way, this is going to be Kai’s acid test and will surely pit him with high-caliber NBA players and may impact his draft stock come 2022. If he performs well, then his draft potential will improve tremendously, but he will also be looking at the risk of losing a lot if he performs badly.
At this point, what we know is that Kai will not be playing in the Fiba Asia qualifying tournament this month. It is too late for Kai to join the team and it would be best not to let him join as it may only hurt the team’s chemistry.
Overall, it is okay for Kai to skip the June tournament because we only need to win against Indonesia, which has nothing to lose. The Indonesian national team, coached by Rajko9 Toroman, is already qualified in the Fiba Asia tournament as the said nation is the host. I just really hope we don’t mess up and end up missing the tournament. We are going to have our hands full in that tournament considering that Australia and New Zealandwill be participating in the said event. Back in 2017, Australia won the tournament, which is being staged every 4 years to give way for the World Cup and the Olympics.
Now, back to Kai, by August, Kai will start his training with the Adelaide 36ers and his journey towards the NBA will start from there.
The question now is whether Kai will be getting his minutes or will he ride the bench. It is not going to help if he is sitting and will be just some decoration for the team.