Gilas program director has seen what the 6-foot-6 Rangel can offer to Gilas that is why he had included him among the Gilas Pilipinas picks in the last PBA Rookie Draft as he is showing a retaliating potential. 

“I think Tzaddy Rangel was probably the bolter of the group, the one that surprised a lot of people. But my impressions on Tzaddy go back several years when he was playing with NU and I saw a bigger kid, playing with a lot of energy, and didn’t get many opportunities,” Baldwin said during a Zoom In on SPIN.ph episode.

Big man Rangel was one of the four players selected in the Gilas draft, with NLEX gaining his signing rights after getting him at No. 3 where he was joined alongside Jordan Heading, Will Navarro, and Jaydee Tungcab as inclusions to the Gilas roster.

Rangel is a product of the NUwhere he played limited minutes in his UAAP career then he played with San Miguel Alab Pilipinas in the ASEAN Basketball League before being picked for the Gilas pool. 

Baldwin, who oversaw players inside the bubble, has seen promising improvement in Rangel over the course of Gilas’ training at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna. 

“I know that we need big kids in this program. Tzaddy has a long way to go in terms of developing but I think even after the last two bubbles, anybody that sees him play now will see a guy who is radically different,” Baldwin said, describing Rangel’s offensive game. 

“He’s been a guy that has really picked up the scoring cudgels in the bubbles. We were talking among us coaches. He would probably be among the top six or seven scorers in the bubble in all of our scrimmages. He has good hands around the basket. He is smart. He rolls hard. He finishes well around the basket,” he continued.

For Baldwin, though Rangel has a lot of things still to work on, he is positive that the Gilas program is developing Rangel into a competitive professional player. 

“But again, in terms of a 6-6 guy being able to compete, he has to do a lot of development in his perimeter game. He is still a ways off but unquestionably, we are certainly developing a kid who is going to be a good professional player,” he averred.