Last Thursday, in the wake of Dwayne Jones signing with the Phoenix Suns, I wrote about some other D-League prospects that Smart Gilas might want to check out. Scott Schroeder of Ridiculous Upside singled out former University of Wisconsin center Greg Stiemsma as a promising player that should interest the Gilas brain trust.

In a story that came out yesterday in the Manila Standard Today, Rajko Toroman told Rey Joble that they were indeed looking at Stiemsma as their top choice. Scott emails me quickly: “Apparently the guys who run your team really do read your blog.” Well, Toroman has been known to make his presence felt around these parts.

(By the way, how about another scoop from Joble? Toroman was right there in the stadium last Friday, open for anyone to ask him questions, and Joble was the only one who bothered to ask him anything? What were the rest of the reporters doing, scratching their balls in the press room?)

Today, after scintillating performances in the D-League playoffs, Stiemsma gets called up by the Minnesota Timberwolves. While it’s already the last week of the NBA season, Stiemsma is thisclose to making it as an NBA regular that there’s probably zero chance that Gilas will be able to sign him. Imagine, if this Wolves thing works out, he’ll be backing up Darko next season!

According to Toroman, Smart Gilas will be looking at former Iowa State big man Jared Homan if things with Stiemsma don’t work out. It should be noted that Homan is currently playing a very important role as a starter for his current team in Greece, Maroussi BC, which made its first appearance in the Euroleague this season. It remains to be seen if Gilas would be able to entice someone like Homan out of a very high-profile gig in Europe to be on a team where, as former import Jamal Sampson put it, players are treated like kids by Toroman.

Just remember: if Shawn Daniels ends up being the naturalized player for Gilas, I called it here first.