GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone fiercely defended his decision to have a limited pool of just 12 players but also said that his coaching staff has been on the lookout for replacements in the event of injuries as they prepare for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Cone came under severe criticism for lack of foresight after failing to find someone to fill the spot of the injured starting guard Scottie Thompson. But Cone apparently proved naysayers wrong after Gilas beat the Taiwan Mustangs, 74-64, in a tuneup match last Sunday, using an 11-man rotation.
Cone, however, explained that the ’12-man pool’ approach isn’t written in stone. He said he expects injuries along the way, which was why Japeth Aguilar and Mason Amos were added as reserves to the Gilas pool that is now at 14, including Jamie Malonzo and AJ Edu, who were ruled out of the OQT.
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“I came to this approach that I would rather go with 12 and invite people to play rather than go with 16 and cut people,” said Cone on Monday following Gilas Pilipinas’ tune-up game against the Mustangs.
“The idea is if we needed somebody, we go get him. And we did. We got Japeth. We got Mason. The thing with Scottie, (it) happened so late, however, we just couldn’t get somebody for him. But again, we didn’t really feel we needed anybody for him at this point,” Cone said.
Cone said Gilas anticipated that injuries could occur, nothing that it had already happened during the Fiba Asia Cup 2025 qualifiers last February.
“This is just a style that I wanted to do and we came into this eyes wide open and we knew that this might happen. But also, if you remember the last window, we only had 10 players when we played against Taiwan. Jamie didn’t play and June Mar didn’t play and AJ didn’t play. We only had Japeth as a sub. But again, going 10, 11 guys, not an issue for us,” Cone said.
Cone said that, for this current Fiba window, Gilas already searched for players that could come in but had issues that prevented them from making the trip, much less train and be part of the team.
One issue was visa, which is the reason why Roger Pogoy failed to make it to the Gilas Pilipinas roster for the OQT as a possible replacement for Thompson though he practiced with the team at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna.
“We wanted other players. We talked about other players. We talked to other players,” Cone said.
“But for one reason or another, we couldn’t get anybody. Anybody that we wanted. I don’t want to go through the list of guys we talked to but it was quite a long list. For one reason or the other, it didn’t work out, whether it was a visa issue or family issue or whatever,” said Cone.
“Like I said, the idea is I was going to add people if we needed them. It just happened that we did this so late that we couldn’t get anybody that we really wanted to come in.”
Triangular problem
Another factor, said Cone, is the player would have to be incorporated to the triangle offense and the defense system that Gilas Pilipinas is running.
“Josh (Reyes, Gilas assistant coach) was offering one of his players from the 17-and-under to come and play with us so he could get experience. But again, it was like I’ve got to teach him how to run the triangle, I’ve got to teach him how to do the defense, and be very disruptive at that point.”
“Ask Mason. He had a hard time. He is new to our team. He really had a hard time learning the triangle even up to now and over three days. That’s one guy. You get a second guy, it’s even harder, unless we could have gotten someone that knew the triangle.”
“We are better off going 11-strong,” said Cone.
Earlier, after the game with Taiwan, Cone said that doesn't mean that Gilas doesn't miss Thompson, who he calls an “infectious player.”
“It’s not that we can’t find a replacement for him. We are just missing him. Anybody we get is not going to replace Scottie. That’s just a fact of life,” said Cone. “But we don’t feel shorthanded. We talked it out with the 11 guys. They are 11 strong and they feel that we are okay.
“People are making a mountain out of a molehill here. It’s not a big of a deal to go 11-strong, at least for me,” said Cone.
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