With Justin Brownlee back in town, Gilas Pilipinas will commence a brief training camp on Friday at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna in preparation for the 2024 FIBA Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments set in July in Latvia.
The team will then leave on June 25 to take on Turkey on June 27 and Poland on June 30 in a pair of tune-up games before the start of the tourney set July 2 to 7.
The Philippines is bracketed with the host country and Georgia in Group A.
Gilas faces Latvia on July 3 and battles Georgia on July 4.
In Group B are Cameroon, Brazil and Montenegro, who will all square off in Group B.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the crossover semifinals for a chance to get one of the four remaining slots in the Paris 2024 Olympics
Brownlee is coming off a short stint with the Pelita Jaya team in the Basketball Champions League Asia.
The Ginebra resident import and naturalized Filipino Brownlee will be joined in the 12-man Gilas lineup by Kai Sotto, Junemar Fajardo, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos, Calvin Oftana, CJ Perez, Chris Newsome and Scottie Thompson.
The bad news is that big men AJ Edu and Jaimee Malonzo will be missed due to injuries.