By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone is inclined to stick with the original 12 players he handpicked for the FIBA 2025 Asia Cup although he stressed that he’s keeping the options open with the addition of new players to the pool.
The veteran mentor said he is still putting premium on the familiarity to his system as well as the team’s chemistry but admitted that the Final 12 is not cast in stone yet with the recent additions in Troy Rosario, RJ Abarrientos, Zav Lucero and Rhenz Abando are all candidates for inclusion.
The original 12 Cone picked are Scottie Thompson, Jamie Malonzo, Dwight Ramos, Justin Brownlee, Kai Sotto, June Mar Fajardo, Chris Newsome, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, Cjay Perez, Calvin Oftana and AJ Edu.
Japeth Aguilar and collegiate star Mason Amos are tapped as reserves and oftentimes take the spot of whoever player in the original 12 not available.
In the case of the upcoming continental tiff, Aguilar is primed to take the spot of Sotto who is still recovering from his ACL injury.
“Kai’s not there so Japeth is the one filling in for Kai to continue giving us size. As of now, those are the 12 that we are intending to bring but if something happens or we feel someone is really contributing that we need to be on the team from the long list, we’ll add him in,” Cone explained.
Of the four new additions, both Rosario and Abarrietos are playing under Cone with Ginebra in the PBA. Abando, on the other hand, was part of the 2023 World Cup team where Cone was a deputy to former Gilas coach Chot Reyes.
As for the part of Lucero, Cone said the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas is still verifying his eligibility as a local.
“The 12 we’re bringing is not written in stone. We could make some last minute changes, but RJ is certainly a candidate, Troy is a candidate. We’ll see what happens as we move forward. But they’re here and they’re part of the long list, just in case something happens,” said Cone.
“But again, it’s really, for us, it’s about system and familiarity and that’s what we’re trying to bank our success on,” he reiterated.
