Butiki Bullets: Kelly Williams on Smart Gilas?

• Smart Gilas head coach Rajko Toroman may have expressed interest in Sta Lucia forward Kelly Williams, but Philippine basketball fans better not get their hopes up. At least not yet, seeing as PBA officials have remained lukewarm on the subject. Sta Lucia governor Buddy Encarnado seems open to the idea, but maintains the need for "balance between the team and being patriotic." PBA chairman Lito Alvarez thinks Smart Gilas has no need for a PBA reinforcement. PBA commissioner, Sonny Barrios, meanwhile, is concerned that "their players have already sacrificed a lot tapos kung kukuha pa sila sa amin, baka sumama pa loob nila."

• A Smart Gilas insider recently lent his two bits on Fire Quinito. On Chris Tiu's defense: "It would seem that it is his fault when the guards score but truth is, he does everything coach Raijko asks him to on defense. He follows their defensive philosophy to the letter and often enough it is due to his teammates' mistakes in following their help side rules on defense that lead his man to score."

• And for those keeping tabs, Chris Lutz statistics. Most of his numbers are down from last season, but the ones that probably matter to Gilas the most - FG%, FT% and especially 3p% - are all slightly higher this year. Interesting to note, though, that his FG% is inversely proportional to the number of points he scores.

• In the off-chance that these naturalization problems continue, is it too much to hope for Japeth Aguilar and Greg Slaughter to develop into a legitimate frontline combo? They seem like such a good fit, at least defensively. Slaughter's size is a perfect match for the high-flying help defense of Aguilar, if they can only figure out how to use their talents properly. They have an 80-game schedule before competing in the 16th Asian Games in November and a couple more months after that before the 2011 FIBA Asia Championships. Is it wishful thinking to hope that, in a year's time, those two blue-chips are playing better than the gutsy but undersized Jason Ballesteros for Smart Gilas?