TIM Cone is not willing to gamble on bringing in new faces to Gilas Pilipinas, not at this time when the country is in the middle of its crucial campaign for a berth in next year’s FIBA World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
Except for naturalized player Bennie Boatwright and replacement wingman Rhenz Abando, the rest of the national team’s 12-man roster for the fifth window are composed of what Cone’s refers to as the ‘usual suspects.’
Continuity of the Gilas program is the most important thing at this point, according to the 68-year-old Cone.
READ: Boatwright only has a few days to blend in at Gilas before FIBA debut
“What we’re trying to do is get continuity and so for us, all of those guys, these guys who know the system, who understand the system,” he said.
The rest of the team are all composed of players already familiar with Cone’s system – Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, CJ Perez, Juan Gomez De Liano, and the overseas players composed of Dwight Ramos, Kai Sotto, AJ Edu, Quentin Millora-Brown, Mike Philips, Kevin Quiambao
Only Boatwright and Abando are the only two players who haven’t played yet under Cone’s Gilas system.
“That idea of continuity and having these guys together through the windows, gives us the opportunity to come in with everybody knowing it,” said Cone.
His reply was in response to a Spin.ph question on why no player from the Gilas team that competed in the Nagoya Asian Games was included in the team seeing action in the penultimate window of the qualifiers set Nov. 27 to 29 in Seremban, Malaysia.
Actually, only Calvin Oftana from that Asiad unit was initially included as part of the team to the qualifiers, but the TNT forward begged off at the last minute as his wife is scheduled to give birth by the end of the month.
Oftana’s exit paved the way for Abando’s entry.
“If we bring in three or four new guys to five guys, and Bennie is also new, and then we got only six days of preparations, then we’re not going to be very good,” said Cone.
“So we’re trying to keep that continuity going.”
Gilas Pilipinas had also learned its lessons when it virtually send a hazily-formed and new national team unit to the Asiad that only had three weeks of practice prior to the tournament.
It resulted in the Philippines absorbing its worst showing in the continental showcase when it failed to reach the knockout stage and end its bid for a back-to-back gold medal.
Cone will not have the compliment of having a full team until Gilas arrives in Kuala Lumpur on the 21st.
Some of the overseas players such as Edu, Millora-Brown, Philips, and Boatwright will just hook up with the rest of Gilas in the Malaysian capital, although the team’s new naturalized player won’t be arriving until the 23rd from China.
“We won’t have a full team until we get down to Kuala Lumpur,” said Cone.
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