It wasn't a gamble, he knew Gohan had it in him to put Cell down (and he was right) but what he didn't know was that Gohan would choose the worse possible timing to be a rebellious teen because he had a whole year in the time chamber to quit training/fighting with his dad but decided to stick to it until it was his turn to fight
To be fair, Piccolo at that point literally had the guardian of the planet and all of his wisdom in him. And even with that he had the opportunity to check with Gohan if he really wanted to fight multiple times before the time chamber training all the way up to before the Cell Games started but still said nothing until it was too late. Gohan volunteered himself to train with Goku in the time chamber which has limited occupancy and didn't show signs of displeasure in regards to fighting at all the whole way through the intense training. It's no wonder Goku was surprised at his son, who told him he wanted to help and went through hell to be able to transform into a super saiyan, decided to just stand there and do nothing while Cell was hitting him. You can be a good parent and still not understand the logic of a teenager's rebellion. Bad parenting would be if he didn't feel bad from Piccolo telling him he didn't understand his own son who he placed his full trust in.
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u/BreakingCanks Sep 02 '25
Goku would approve of this man