Japeth Aguilar is a 25 year old, 6 foot 9 inches player born and raised in the Philippines. Even with his young age, he has already experienced playing on a Collegiate Level(UAAP Ateneo), on a NCAA Team(Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers), professional teams in the Philippines(Burger King, Talk N Text) as well as being a part of the Philippine Basketball Team.
On September 12, he was invited by NBA teams to do workouts with them as well as show of his skills. One of the NBA team was supposed to be the San Antonio Spurs and the other is the New Orleans Hornets. While in the US, Japeth Aguilar attended some workouts and training that was attended by NBA scouts and NBA agents.
NBA agents and scouts have mixed reactions about Japeth Aguilar. One particular agent has said that he is good but still need to be trained and one scout saying that he is still not polish enough to be an NBA player.
With this invitations, Japeth Aguilar is the first Filipino player to be invited on these workouts by an NBA Team. While this might be the first step on achieving his dream to be an NBA player, there is still a long road ahead of him and it is still too early to tell if he can achieve that dream.
In my opinion, It is unlikely for Japeth Aguilar to be drafted in the upcoming NBA draft as well as the year after it because those invitations are the first and sometimes the last step of a basketball player's chance to amuse the scouts and create buzz with his skills. What is best for him is to join other basketball leagues in the US like the NBA D-league and other small basketball leagues to hone his skills. Or if he must, join European leagues because they have more international experience.
I just hope that there would be a Filipino NBA player soon.
