RHENZ Abando, Zavier Lucero, RJ Abarrientos, and Troy Rosario have been included in the Gilas Pilipinas pool for the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Head coach Tim Cone said the four players have been included to comply with the tournament requirement to submit a ‘long list’ roster.
Abarrientos and Rosario have already attended Gilas’ first practice on Monday, while Lucero is still in US for a vacation.
READ SBP checking on Zavier Lucero's FIBA eligibility, says Cone
Abando, on the other hand, will see action for Strong Group Athletics in the Jones Cup.
Cone said the four players will also be under consideration for the Final 12 for the continental showpiece.
“The 12 we are bringing is not written in stone,” said Cone on Monday. “We could have some last-minute changes.”
“We’ll see what happens as we move forward. They are part of the long list that we have, just in case something happens,” Cone added.
The 12 players that Cone handpicked for the pool were Justin Brownlee, Kai Sotto, June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, Cjay Perez, Calvin Oftana, and Jamie Malonzo.
Japeth Aguilar, who was named to the roster as alternate, will be taking over the place of Sotto, who is out due to an ACL injury.
"It's just totally the Asia Cup," said Cone, on the inclusion of Abando, Lucero, Rosario, and Abarrientos. "It's a long list for the Asia Cup that the Asia Cup required us to do. They required us to put a long list together for the Asia Cup. So I think we put 15, 16 players. Kai's on that list too, but obviously he's not playing."
At the moment, Cone is inclined to bring the 12 players that were initially part of the pool, but is open to make chances depending on how the new players get acclimated with his system.
“As of now, those are the 12 that we are intending to bring. But if something happens or we feel that someone is really contributing that needs to be on the team from the long list, we’ll add them in,” said Cone.
“But again, it’s really for us, it’s about system and familiarity and that’s what we’re trying to bank our success on,” said Cone.
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