AT ABOUT this time two years ago, coach Chot Reyes assembled a squad that he was to prepare for the 2013 Fiba-Asia Championship, a squad that wasn’t an all star team in any way but one which was built to battle the best of Asia.

Flash forward to the present day and we now all know that Gilas Pilipinas won the silver medal in that tournament held in one glorious stretch last August which the whole country witnessed.

It was a squad which the entire nation rallied behind and which millions of basketball-loving Filipinos cried with.

That silver medal, which came after an emotional 84-79 Final Four victory over arch-nemesis South Korea and a narrow loss in the championship match to regional power Iran and Hamed El-Haddadi, meant that the Filipinos made it back to the World Championship stage for the first time in almost 40 years.

And with the prospects of playing Lebron James and Kevin Durant of global super power United States a possibility in the World Cup in Spain in August, Reyes is doing a little tinkering with the lineup again to ensure that the Philippines will go to Spain armed with the best chance that it has.

Five names have been added to the gallant list of 12 that finished second to the Iranians in Manila, namely: Rain or Shine’s Beau Belga and Paul Lee, Marcio Lassiter of San Miguel Beer, Jared Dillinger of Meralco and rookie Greg Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra.

Reyes, in an earlier interview, said that the 12 men that played in the Asian qualifying was the team that he needed for the qualifiers, specifically, the best squad that he could assemble to have a chance against the Koreans.

That purpose has been served, obviously.

But being bracketed with Argentina, Croatia, Greece, Senegal and Puerto Rico in Sevilla, Spain, Reyes feels that he needs to add a new face, or faces, to the last Gilas Pilipinas squad.

Who will get in and who will be out? That’s the million-dollar question at the moment. And for sure, Gilas Pilipinas will be a different team come the jousts in Spain.

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I am not a coach by any means, just an avid follower of the sport and a rabid fan of the Philippine national team.

Like any basketball fan, I like to analyze why coaches do this and why they do that. It gives me a feeling that somehow, I know the game better than the guy next to me.

The additions that Reyes made to the National Five seem simple enough to me:

First, he put Slaughter in the pool to add a legitimate 7-foot, homegrown player that could help either Marcus Douthit or Andrey Blatche man the middle for the Philippines in Spain.

With Slaughter in the lineup and with June Mar Fajardo showing vast improvement after his Gilas stint last year, the Filipinos will by no means be a small squad in Spain.

Belga became a candidate again because, let’s face it, no one intimidates anyone better than Belga does in the PBA. If Belga can do that to Filipinos in the pros, imagine what kind of terror he can give to players who see him for the first time.

Lassiter is there because he can shoot the outside shot. No ifs and buts about it. And another thing going for the Fil-American is he has the size and the ability to play better defense.

Remember, Lassiter grew up playing the game against Americans in the United States and he is, at close to 6-feet-4, bigger physically and more athletic than Gary David or Larry Fonacier and even Jeff Chan.

Dillinger is a big guard who has no qualms playing defense. Hard defense. He will carry out instructions of clamping down on somebody and will do it even if it means that he has to die for it.

The problem with Dillinger is that he will basically be a repetition of Gabe Norwood, who is also about his size and has a great track record in stopping shooters in international tournaments.

And then there’s Lee, the stocky former Rookie of the Year who is, hands-down, one of the best point guards in the country today. Lee is also in the mold of a Jason Castro, one who can break down the defense with his penetrations and outside shooting.

Like Castro, Lee is also a great passer.

But that’s just me. Reyes is a genius on the bench and I am in no way in a position to judge how he will come up with the final composition of our National Team for Spain.

What’s important is we all know that Reyes will leave no stones unturned and that he has nothing but the good of the national team in his mind.