Fajardo adds 3-point shooting in his arsenal at Gilas

Six-time PBA Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo has always been known as a low-post operator in the pro league.

But as the 6-foot-10 Fajardo heads to his third FIBA World Cup in his basketball career, the Cebuano big man looks to reinvent himself by adding three-point shooting in his arsenal.

In Gilas Pilipinas' recent four-day closed-door training at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna, Fajardo took time to work on shooting from long range.

And he has a very specific reason for that.

June Mar Fajardo FIBA PHOTO

“The opponents (in the FIBA World Cup) are bigger, I can't simply play at the post,” reasoned Fajardo in his recent chat with Quinito Henson in the veteran sports analyst's Youtube Sports Channel Playitright TV.

Gilas coach Chot Reyes explained that part of the team's build up for the FIBA World Cup includes “stepping out of their comfort zone.”

“It's (three-point shooting) just something we want our players to continuously improve and step out of their comfort zone,” Reyes said. “It's not exactly something we will use or go to, but

players like to explore and grow.”

In the last decade or so, European and Latin American players have showed their ability to shoot from the long range, characterized by swift ball movement. It was a move that practically deviates from the usual low-post game or half-court set that the United States played in the past.

Reyes added that players are also given the “liberty and freedom as long as they know how to use it (three-point shooting) within the system.”

Fajardo has recently been given the green light to participate in five-on-five drills since coming off a partial tear on his MCL, which he suffered in San Miguel Beer's opening game in the East Asia Super League Champions Week last March.

His injury forced the bullstrong SMB big man to miss the rest of the PBA Governors' Cup, which TNT won after dethroning Barangay Ginebra in their title series.

With Gilas slated to play a series of tuneup matches in Europe, beginning with Estonia, followed by Finland, possibly Latvia and later, club teams from Lithuania, it wouldn't be a surprise of big local players like Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar and even Ange Kouame, one of three naturalized players in the national pool will start shooting from afar.