GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is in no rush to take someone out of his compact lineup following the inclusion of Quentin Millora-Brown ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian qualifiers starting November.
Millora-Brown's arrival brings to 14 players the members of th Gilas pool, counting the 12 that saw action in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 namely Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, AJ Edu, Carl Tamayo, June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Calvin Oftana, Cjay Perez, Jamie Malonzo, and Japeth Aguilar.
Kai Sotto is the 14th player in the pool but missed the Fiba Asia Cup due to an ACL tear he sustained during the Japan B.League season, leaving Cone with decisions to make if he so decides to stick to his compact 12-man pool.
“It’s more of an addition at this point. It’s like, I hate this term, 'add to the pool.' We haven’t removed anybody. We just added him in,” said Cone on Friday.
READ Quentin Millora-Brown to play for Gilas beginning in November qualifiers
The Nationals begin the FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers campaign on the road against Guam on November 28. Gilas Pilipinas will play Guam again at home on December 1.
QMB’s inclusion means that there are already five bigs in the Gilas squad in Sotto, Edu, Fajardo, Sotto and Aguilar. The odd man out could be Aguilar, the 38-year-old Barangay Ginebra big who was only convinced to be part of the Gilas roster for the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 to fill the void left by Sotto.
Cone said it is still too early to decide on who will be taken out of the Gilas roster with QMB now in it. The health of Sotto prior to the November window will also factor in the composition of the roster.
“If Kai comes back healthy, obviously he’d be another change to the 12 guys. Those are the decisions we will have to make but we don’t to make it now so there’s no reason for us to make it now,” said Cone.
“We’d just add him (Millora-Brown) in and we’ll decide later who the Final 12 will be,” said Cone.
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