Dwight Ramos' excellent play through the final three games of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers only validated the massive international potential Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin has long seen in the 22-year-old.
"Certainly, we don't know Dwight's future yet, but I think that this young man can play this game at a high level pretty much anywhere in the world," remarked Baldwin after Gilas dispatched Korea for the second time in five days on Sunday.
The Philippine national team mentor's comments came as a response to statements made by Indonesia head coach Rajko Toroman, who had said Ramos fit the bill of a player capable of competing in European leagues.
"The biggest surprise for me, not just for today but also looking at the tournament in Bahrain, is Dwight Ramos," opined the former Smart Gilas head coach after he and the Indonesians got drubbed by the Filipinos last Friday. "He is looking like a European player - good size, very tough, athletic, and can shoot the ball. Really big prospect."
Indeed, the Fil-Am had certainly looked the part in the third and final window for Gilas, who leaned on the incoming Ateneo Blue Eagle to finish the tournament in Angeles, Pampanga unbeaten at 5-0. In three games against Korea and Indonesia, he averaged 15.0 points on 41.9 percent shooting, 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 steals, and 2.0 assists in 30.3 minutes.
He capped it all off with a gem of a performance, scoring 19 points while burying five triples to go along with five assists, three rebounds, and two steals in the rematch with the Koreans.
"It was a little personal. We want to show that we can hang with the big dogs like Korea," remarked the 6-foot-4 guard after helping Gilas score back-to-back wins over their rivals. "It felt good to win, but really, the main thing about the game was that we would learn from it or we would get experience from it. So win or lose, we would have come out with more experience, more stuff to improve and to learn."
Baldwin also focused on his ward's improvement as a playmaker and said Ramos' development as a floor general would make him a generally good fit in any European club's roster.
"If he can continue his progress as a point guard... I think, he feels the game really well, he sees the floor really well, he's got good size and strength to be able to play in a physical, competitive competition like European basketball," he noted, talking about Ramos who averaged 13.8 points on 50-46-84 splits while also adding 6.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2.0 steals in the qualifier's three windows.
Gilas' new poster boy, for his part, understood that to be a better point guard, he has to be a more expressive on the floor.
"Thinking ahead, I want to be a better leader. I want to be more vocal out there on the floor, guide my teammates because I think I know a little bit about what coach Tab wants from us," explained Ramos. "So I just think I need to be able to relay that message from coach Tab to the rest of the team a little bit more smoothly."