FanPost

Philippines eyeing Sparks center Jennifer Hamson for FIBA Asia

Trying to continue from where it left off in 2015, the Philippines national women's basketball team is eyeing current Los Angeles Sparks center Jennifer Hamson in an attempt to boost its lineup for the next FIBA Asia Championship for Women.

The Philippines women's hoops team, monickered "Perlas Pilipinas" locally, made it to Level I of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship for Women earlier this year by having a 4-1 win-loss record in Level II and knocking off India in the promotion-relegation game.

The nation also improved its FIBA ranking from 58th to 49th after the tournament.

Now preparing for a tougher battle in the tournament's top tier -- which includes defending champion Japan and powerhouses China and Korea -- the Philippines wants to up its competitiveness by several notches and the team looks to start by adding more personnel.

"It's really important to have bigs coming into the FIBA Asia tournament in 2017," national women's basketball team head coach Patrick Aquino said. "As I could recall my experience with the 2015 tournament, China got like four 6-7 girls. Japan has two 6-5 girls. Korea, they have an 18-year-old who is about 6-5 already."

The 23-year-old Hamson averaged 1.6 points and 1.5 rebounds in 6.5 minutes per outing during the 2015 WNBA season. She played in 25 regular season games and started twice.

"With the talent the Filipinas have, I think we can match up with the talent among Asia. I believe with the proper training and experience they can get, they can go up a notch," Aquino added.

Hamson likely fits the Perlas criteria. At 6-foot-7, Hamson should provide the Philippines team with more size in the frontcourt and improve its interior defense.

The Philippines has the shortest average height among Level I teams in the women's competition.

FIBA allows each country one naturalized player in its tournaments. The Philippines men's national team already fielded former Brooklyn Net Andray Blatche during the 2014 FIBA World Cup and the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship where the country won silver.

In the past, the men's squad also played former Los Angeles Laker draft pick Marcus Douthit in the team's 2011 and 2013 FIBA Asia Championships.

Since Hamson is still young, Aquino believes the center can make a difference for the Philippines squad.

"Going to that tournament, we have to match-up with the big girls of Asia. Maybe having a naturalized player 6-5 and above would make a difference for our team. With the talent of our team, we can go a long way but we have to have a big to perform really well," he said.

The Philippines' ultimate goal is to enter the 2018 FIBA World Championship for Women in Spain. Three slots are up for grabs in the Asian continental championship in 2017, and with only six teams in Level I of FIBA Asia, Aquino will try to make the most out of the opportunity.

"Who knows," Aquino shared. "With the experience we get and the succeeding years to come, maybe our next target is the Olympics. At least this is a good start. We will prepare for this. One whole year to prepare for this and hopefully we can get something out of it."

"They say the way we played in the recent FIBA Asia, we can match up with the (Level I teams). Maybe just additional height or additional ceiling to get those rebounds, defend bigs, maybe we can get to another level again."

Other bigs the national team have in mind are Cheyenne Parker (Chicago Sky), Jessica Breland (Chicago Sky), Dearica Hamby (San Antonio Stars), and Alyssa Thomas (Connecticut Sun).