Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin said the team elected to keep Dwight Ramos in the 12-man roster with the expectation that he would recover in time for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, Serbia.

Baldwin has ruled out the chances of Ramos to suit up for the two Group A matches against host Serbia and Dominican Republic after suffering a groin injury during Gilas’ second win over South Korea in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers in Pampanga.

Ramos’ injury left many to wonder why the Gilas coaching staff opted not to replace him with either LeBron Lopez, Jaydee Tungcab or Javi Gomez de Gomez, but Baldwin said there was belief that Ramos’ injury will heal up before the OQT.

“Dwight got his injury in the second Korea game and he finished the game. He played till the end,” Baldwin said when he guested the online show Hoops Life Tuesday, June 29 from the Serbian capital. “By the next day, we knew something was wrong, but because he had played through it, the thinking was that this would be a couple of days and he should be coming right.

“So we never considered not bringing him, and I know there’s some talk that we should have replaced him on the roster. And certainly if we knew that he would miss the games, we would have done that. We would have brought LeBron, or Jaydee Tungcab or Javi or one of these guys.”

Baldwin also explained that it was too late for Gilas to make last-minute changes since the roster deadline for the OQT came before Ramos’ status became gloomy.

“But we have every expectation that he would be healthy, but he just hasn’t responded to all the treatment and the rest so unfortunately we can’t change the roster after that date,” said Baldwin.

“So it’s really unfortunate for Dwight, for us, for the players that would have replaced him and would have gotten some experience,” he added.

Ramos was the most consistent performer during the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, with Baldwin opting to use him as a playmaker to groom him for matchups against teams with bigger guards.

Instead, Baldwin will look to make the most out of 5-foot-10 SJ Belangel and 5-foot-11 RJ Abarrientos at the backcourt.

Baldwin did say that Ramos has gotten better in the recent days, but pointed out that “groin injuries are entirely unpredictable.”