GILAS Pilipinas will be going with 11 players in the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Latvia as the team opted not to fill the spot left by the injured Scottie Thompson.
“We are going 11 strong,” said Cone in an interview with reporters after Gilas’ win over Taiwan Mustangs in a tune-up at the Philsports Arena.
Cone said he doesn’t see the need to add another player for the OQT since he doesn’t plan on playing 12 players in a game anyway.
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“I don’t feel we are shorthanded at all. I’m not a guy who plays 11, 12 guys anyway. You know me? I don’t play that many guys. I’m nearly eight or nine-man rotation,” said Cone.
“The reason you have 12 guys isn’t necessarily for the game, you have 12 guys in practice or in case somebody goes down. I don’t feel shorthanded at all,” Cone added.
“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."
However, Cone said Gilas Pilipinas will definitely miss Thompson, who has been dealing with a bulging disc even during the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.
“However, I do really, really miss Scottie. You all know how much I rely on Scottie. He is such an infectious player. He infects the guys around him. He does all the things that don’t show up on the scorecard so it’s not that we can’t find a replacement for him. We’re just missing him,” said Cone.
Cone, however, said Gilas still made an effort to fill the hole left by Thompson, but wasn’t able to do so. An example was Roger Pogoy, who was part of the Gilas training team at the Inspire Sports Academy but didn’t have a visa to make the trip to Latvia.
“It was a visa problem. We couldn’t get a visa in time for them. We wanted him,” said Cone.
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