GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone said he and his staff have yet to decide on who will replace RR Pogoy in the 12-man lineup for the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Cone said the final decision will be made during the managers’ meeting which will be held on December 3, the eve of the start of the SEA Games men's basketball competitions at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We haven’t decided that,” said Cone after Thursday’s practice at the Upper Deck Sports Center. “We don’t have to decide until December 3. It will be a medical replacement. We will secure a medical release for RR that will allow us to add somebody from the pool.”
Cone said Pogoy’s replacement will most likely be either Greg Slaughter, Scottie Thompson, or Art Dela Cruz, the final three cuts from the initial 15-man pool.
“It’s obviously going to be Greg, Scottie, or Art because those are the guys that are here with us and doing the work and know the system and everything. It will most likely be one of those three. We just haven’t made the decision yet,” said Cone.
Cone admitted they also considered Jayson Castro to be a replacement for Pogoy, but Castro begged off as he is still nursing injuries even though he already played in the quarterfinals.
“We did inquire whether he can come back but he’s got a couple of injuries that he is battling. He is afraid to get back in and get reinjured again with us. The two-week break that he is going to get before the start of the semifinals is valuable to him,” said Cone.
While the absence of Castro and Pogoy is a big loss to the team, Cone said the team remains formidable.
“When you look at our lineup, we got enough shooters. We’ve got LA (Tenorio), Stanley (Pringle), Matt (Wright), Marcio (Lassiter), Troy (Rosario). We can still put a real good shooting team if we want to. We still have a lot of versatility in the lineup. Point guards are really strong so we feel good about where we are.
“Sure we would have liked to keep those two guys around but those are the things you don’t have control over. Control the things you do and we got our guys that we need,” said Cone.
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