GILAS Pilipinas is not inclined to field Terrence Romeo, Calvin Abueva, Jason Perkins, and Mo Tautuaa in the Asian Games anymore and will stick with the newcomers.
On the eve of their departure to Hangzhou for the quadrennial tournament, head coach Tim Cone said he no longer sees the coaching staff making changes following the team’s final practice on Saturday at the Philsports Arena.
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A clear sign of that is Romeo, Abueva, Perkins, and Tautuaa were no longer at Gilas practice, with replacements Chris Ross, Kevin Alas, CJ Perez, and Arvin Tolentino attending on Saturday or after they played their tune-up game against Changwon LG Sakers.
The team also has Justin Brownlee, June Mar Fajardo, Chris Newsome, Calvin Oftana, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Marcio Lassiter and Ange Kouame.
“I can't imagine anything changing by this time,” said Cone following Saturday’s practice. “It kills me to rule those four guys out because they really changed the dynamics of the team in terms of size and versatility and even knowledge because they have all that foundational knowledge from the beginning of the Inspire camp.”
“Their inclusion would be transformational. But again, we don't have control over that,” said Cone.
Cone is thankful for Ross, Alas, Perez, and Tolentino for stepping in. While they don’t necessarily have the qualities of Romeo, Abueva, Perkins, and Tautuaa such as size, Cone said the four new guys also have something to bring for Gilas that would help in their medal bid which includes leadership.
“We’re really thankful and appreciative of the fact that Chris, Kevin, Arvin, and CJ came back and chose to join us despite not being the first choices. Of course, CJ was but despite not being the first choices that sometimes you know, guys get upset today. But they understand it's for the country. So they'll do whatever it takes. And so we're very appreciative of those guys coming in,” said Cone.
“Like I said, they’re veteran players, they know the game… Kevin can come out and get you 30 any night. Chris is a great leader. He's been leading those San Miguel teams forever and Marcio [Lassiter]… And Arvin knows us, and one really good skill and they've been able to spread the floor. We lose a little bit in terms of size, but we don't lose anything in terms of really just pure talent we have. They are talented and they are smart, and they are all leaders,” said Cone.
Cone said the final day practice had the coaching staff keeping Ross, Alas, Tolentino, and Perez continuing to keep them up to the speed with their system. The final day was also an opportunity for the coaching staff to rest Justin Brownlee and June Mar Fajardo a bit because “they’ve been going at it really hard” in practice according to Cone.
“We need to have fresh legs going into this thing so we catch up the other guys and turn to their knowledge. So they're feel more comfortable out on the floor and then rested up the guys who have been going at it,” said Cone.
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