ALTHOUGH he insisted there won’t be any major changes with the national team roster, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone remains open to the possibility of bringing in a few more players.
Cone mentioned the names of Quentin Millora-Brown, Ange Kouame, Rhenz Abando, Zavier Lucero, RJ Abarrientos, and Troy Rosario to be among those in line for possible call-ups in the future.
“These guys, they’re uppermost in our minds and we’re looking at others. But bottom line is we couldn’t get that done before the FIBA Asia,” he said last Saturday in an interview with "Power and Play."
Cone reiterated that while he, personally, is open to changes, there won’t be anything too drastic.
“There could be one or two more. But the idea is that the program started with an idea of continuity,” he said.
Abando, Lucero, Abarrientos, and Rosario were included in Gilas’ long-list for the Asia Cup, while Kouame is one of the Philippines' naturalized players.
Only Abarrientos and Rosario were able to make it to Gilas practices, as Abando, Lucero, and Koaume had previous commitments.
“We wanted Ange Kouame to come and join us in this last Asia Cup in terms of just being with the team and practice with us, but he went on to the Strong Group and played in the Jones Cup, so he wasn’t available to us," said Cone.
"Same thing happened with Rhenz Abando. We wanted to bring Rhenz in to work with us along with RJ and Troy. We also wanted Lucero as well, but Lucero went to the States and his papers weren’t ready."
Meanwhile, Millora-Brown recently got reclassification from naturalized player to local right after the Filipinos' campaign in the Asia Cup ended.
READ: Cone likens QMB addition to Gilas getting the No. 1 draft pick
“Imagine if we could have had him in the Asia Cup,” said Cone, referring to QMB. “It would have been awesome. He would have already have had his feet wet. He would have been playing, he would have known the guys.”
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