TIM Cone is leaning on having alternates Japeth Aguilar or Mason Amos taking the place of injured Jamie Malonzo at Gilas Pilipinas.
But having been with the Gilas program for a long time who already knows the system of Cone like the palm on his hand, Aguilar is the priority to be the other big man in the national team’s coming campaign in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
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“We’re hoping that Japeth will join us as the 12th man,” according to Cone.
Both Aguilar and Amos have been named as alternates in the Gilas pool that will be training and preparing for the qualifiers to the Paris Olympics two months from now.
Inserting either of the two in the national team became imperative after Malonzo had surgery on his injured left calf last Friday.
Cone said the 6-foot-7 forward will be out of action for months, making him unavailable for the July 2-7 OQT in Latvia.
Aguilar, 37, is basically going to reprise the same role he did at Gilas during the opening window of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers when he was inserted into the lineup against Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei as replacement for the injured June Mar Fajardo and AJ Edu.
“We played without AJ Edu, we played without June Mar the last time. So what’s nice about Japeth is he knows our system really well and he could teach other players,” said Cone.
The Gilas coach however, said the Ginebra veteran big man has yet to say yes.
“We’re going to move in Japeth again. We hope. We haven’t gotten confirmation from Japeth yet that he will join us,” added Cone.
Mason Amos a back-up option
“He got two little babies at home, so it’s tough for him to get out,” said the national coach. “I’m not sure yet, but if he comes in, we have that guy who know what we do.”
Amos is the back-up option.
“If Japeth doesn’t do it, then we’ll try to bring Mason in and teach him real quick,” said Cone.
The Gilas team will reconvene for its OQT preparations starting on June 22.
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