PUR - How best to play Arroyo, Barea

SAN JUAN (FIBA Americas Championship/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - When a coach has a couple of flamboyant national team guards that are as talented and experienced as Carlos Arroyo and Jose Barea, the temptation might be to have them on the court as much as possible.

Puerto Rico coach Paco Olmos will have both in his squad at the FIBA Americas Championship in Caracas, Venezuela, a tournament that tips off on 30 August.

For the Boricuas to clinch a top-four finish and seal a place in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, it stands to reason that both Arroyo and Barea will have to make sizeable contributions.

The question that everyone on the island nation in the Caribbean is pondering, including Olmos himself, is whether Puerto Rico are better with the two players on the court at the same time.

"It's always good to have good players," Olmos said.

"Both Carlos and Jose Juan are excellent, top-level players, but what we have to do is look how to best use them."

Arroyo, who is perhaps best known for his game-winning display in the team's upset of the United States at the 2004 Olympics, has NBA experience and now plays in Europe.

Barea won an NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks.

"If they play separately or they play together when we need it, it is an issue that we are discussing with them," Olmos said to Primera Hora, "and we're not going to generate a controversy where there is none.

"In other words, we're going to find the best solution for the team and the best for the team is to try to use our best guards to win."

At the FIBA Americas Championship, Puerto Rico will compete in Group A with Uruguay, Canada, Jamaica and Brazil.

FIBA