TIGHT IS MIGHT: Cone wants to keep Gilas Pilipinas core intact

No major changes are expected to happen following Gilas Pilipinas impressive victory over Hong Kong in the second window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers late Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Gilas coach Tim Cone stressed that he will not make some drastic changes, especially now that his wards are blending perfectly that led to their unbeaten run in the qualifiers for the prestigious continental tourney set in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in August next year.

The Filipinos are probably the hottest team in the tournament.

They opened their campaign in the qualifiers with a 64-94 win over Hong Kong and a 106-53 triumph over Chinese Taipei in the first window last February.

Cone said tight is might.

Then, they successfully solved the New Zealand puzzle, 93-89, before creaming Hong Kong with a 39-point domination, 93-54, to preserve their perfect slate and inch closer to an Asia Cup spot.

They formalized their entry to the Asia Cup following an 81-64 win of New Zealand over Chinese Taipei on Monday.

Cone, however, said he is not keen on reinforcing his squad with additional players.

“I am less likely to want to increase the pool. I think the more you increase the pool, the more teaching you have to do,” said Cone, a 25-time champion in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

“If you can keep a core going all the time and really focus on that core, keep it a tight group, that core is going to get better. If you start expanding the pool, you have to go back to zero and start teaching everything over again.”

Keeping a tight core has been Cone’s trademark even in the PBA.

When he won his first grand slam with Alaska in 1996, he banked on the nucleus of Johnny Abarrientos, Jojo Lastimosa, Poch Juinio, Jeffrey Cariaso and Bong Hawkins with Sean Chambers as his resident import.

In the same manner, he had James Yap, Marc Pingris, Mark Barroca and Peter June Simon when he led San Mig Coffee to a grand slam in 2014.

Now, he is doing the same at Barangay Ginebra as he is keeping the core of Scottie Thompson, LA Tenorio, Japeth Aguilar with Justin Brownlee as his resident import intact regardless of the firepower of their opposing teams.

Cone said tight is might.

“If you bring 20 guys in, you have to teach 20 guys how to do things in a span of four or five days, and it gets really hard. It’s better if we tighten up,” the American mentor added, stressing that he expects the veterans like Brownlee, Aguilar, June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez to play beautiful music with rising stars like Carl Tamayo, Kai Sotto, Kevin Quiambao and Mason Amos in the years to come.

In fact, it was the young guns who carried the cudgels against Hong Kong with Tamayo registering 18 points and six rebounds, Sotto chipping in 12 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks and Quiambao adding eight points, six rebounds and four assists to underscore their readiness for big battles ahead.

Cone, however, stressed that it doesn’t mean that their jobs will be safe.

“Everything is going to be assessed: The coaching staff is going to be assessed, the players are going to be assessed, everything is going to be assessed by year-end,” he said.

“But that doesn’t mean we don’t make a tweak here and there — personnel-wise, system-wise — we could very easily make a tweak from here and there, anything that can make us better moving forward.”