MANILA (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023) - The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 may still be five years away, but Philippines head coach Chot Reyes is keen on showing they have young talents like Kobe Paras ready to compete.

The high-flying Paras is probably the most familiar name on the preliminary list. He first made waves in the FIBA 3x3 scene before finally cracking the senior team roster last year during the Southeast Asian Games 2017. He is projected to be among this team's main weapons in 2023.

Former senior team member CJ Perez also made the pool along with star collegiate ballers Robert Bolick, Ken Tuffin, Jeo Ambohot, Javee Mocon and Abu Tratter. Perez last saw action for Gilas in the FIBA Asia Challenge 2016, averaging 9.5 points and 1.8 steals per game.

Joining them are former Philippines U16 and U18 players like Matt Nieto, Paul Desiderio, Thirdy Ravena, J-Jay Alejandro, Juan Gomez de Liaño, Joshua Sinclair, Arvin Tolentino, Isaac Go, Kemark Cariño and Will Gozum. Nieto, Ravena and Go are fresh from helping their school win the prestigious University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men's basketball title this season. Nieto was part of the Philippines U16 squad that played in the FIBA U17 World Championship 2014.

The youngest talents included in the pool are arguably the three best U18 players in the country right now: 6ft 7in (2.00m) Carl Tamayo, 6ft 11in (2.10m) AJ Edu, who starred for the Philippines 3x3 U18 team last year, and 7ft 2 in (2.18m) Kai Sotto, who led the Batang Gilas U16 team to a sweep of the SEABA U16 Championship 2017.

Perhaps it's three United-States-based Filipino-Americans, however, who have really piqued the curiosity of most Filipino hoop nuts. These are Dwight Ramos of California State University-Fullerton, Remy Martin of Arizona State University and Troy Rike of Wake Forest University.

Ramos is a 6ft 5in (1.96m) wingman who was supposed to be part of the Batang Gilas U18 2016 team. He was a superstar for Walnut High School in California, where he averaged 28.0 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.6 blocks in his senior year.

Martin, meanwhile, is a 5ft 11in (1.80m) floor general for the Arizona State Sun Devils. He has turned a lot of heads in the US NCAA, putting up averages of 10.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists per contest. He has already signified interest to be part of Gilas Pilipinas in the near future.

Rike, for his part, is an interesting frontline prospect. At 2.03m, he can give this pool great size, and he can play either center or power forward. He is in is senior year for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, where he primarily comes off the bench as an energy player who has a decent midrange game.

"It's a dream come true for me and it's an honor to even be considered to represent the Philippines," Rike said. "There's a lot of really talented players in the pool, who I’m excited to hopefully get a chance to play with. I feel like I can help this team, so I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I can do that in 2023."

The Philippines, along with Japan and Indonesia, will serve as hosts of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, and Reyes is hoping these '23 for 23' players will hit their prime when they don the Gilas Pilipinas colors for the quadrennial event.

FIBA