By REYNALD MAGALLON
Kevin Quiambao was no doubt the biggest revelation for Gilas Pilipinas in its seventh place finish in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup and his emergence to a bigger role is exactly the point of the whole national team program according to head coach Tim Cone.
The huge leap in Quiambao’s performance with the national did not actually come as a surprise for the veteran mentor as that was exactly what is expected from the young guns in the team.
“The whole idea is if we look at the big picture that we are trying to do here, we are trying to build a team. How do you build a team? You get younger players to mix in to veteran players and you let those young players evolve and get better through experience and opportunity,” said Cone.
“And that is what KQ has done. That’s the reason why we put him in the team,” he added, pointing out that Quiambao as well as other younger players in Carl Tamayo along with AJ Edu and Kai Sotto are the young guns of the team.
Cone then went on to praise the development of Quiambao who from deferring to his veterans during his first tournaments with the team has learned to rise up to the occasion and deliver.
The veterans, likewise, are also beginning to recognize the 24-year-old.
“He has gotten better, he has evolved. He’s not afraid of the moment. He is ready to play anytime. He is ready to play at a high level. He’s not gonna be fearful, he’s not gonna be afraid to take the shots,” Cone said of Quiambao.
In the Asia Cup, Quiambao emerged as the third best scorer after Justin Brownlee and Dwight Ramos with 12.0 points in an average of 19 minutes of play. He had a high of 17 points – which he achieved twice including the quarterfinals game against Australia.
“This is what happens to young players, they get confident, they get comfortable,“ explained the veteran coach. They start showing in practice and their teammates start believing in them and then their teammates start looking for them and then they elevate into a bigger role,“ he furthered.
With Quiambao developing as he is, and Tamayo still finding his niche with the national team, Cone believes he already has the core for the future.
“If you look at it you got Dwight who is 26, you got AJ who was 25, Kevin is 24, Carl is 24 and Kai himself is 22 so you got a great core of players moving forward,“ said Cone
“So is this the best this team is going to be? No, they are gonna get much, much better and that was the whole point of the big picture of looking at it over four years rather than just this tournament or the last tournament.”
