Bracing for Boomers

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone is open to making a few tweaks in his roster for their blockbuster showdown with Australia in the second window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.

Depending on how things go with Gilas’ 12-man lineup against New Zealand in the first of the Filipinos’ two homestands at the Mall of Asia Arena as of press time, players cut from the pool will still have a chance to battle the Boomers on Sunday.

Cone trimmed his active pool on the eve of the window’s opening match against the Tall Blacks, leaving RJ Abarrientos, Troy Rosario and Justine Baltazar out of the lineup.

The three, however, still have a chance to showcase what they can bring to Gilas’ cause and play in front of the home crowd if Cone decides to make necessary changes in the Nationals’ drive to secure a seat in the second round.

“You play yourself on, you play off the team, that’s what it is. That’s the bottom line. No matter who is out for this (final) 12, they are (still) very much in, in the program,” Cone said.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has submitted 18 names to FIBA for the second window, which included naturalized player Ange Kouame, Jamie Malonzo and 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto.

However, Malonzo opted to skip the window, Sotto also declined after having just recently recovered from a knee injury while Kouame remained a reserve with Justin Brownlee taking the naturalized player spot.

Aside from Brownlee, bannering the Gilas squad eyeing a third straight win in Group A are June Mar Fajardo, Calvin Oftana, AJ Edu, Chris Newsome, Quentin Millora-Brown, CJ Perez, Scottie Thompson, Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos, Carl Tamayo and newest addition Juan Gomez de Liaño.

“It’s unimaginable how hard that decision is, to make the decision, on who those three guys (out of the Final 12) are,” Cone said.

Cone believes any of his three reserves are ready in case he needs to have their numbers called.

“We’ll see how things go. But no matter what happens, the players who don’t make it are still very much a part of the program and part of the pool and can very well be the next guy up in the next window,” Cone said.

The decorated mentor has kept a lean pool, putting a premium on familiarity, chemistry and full understanding of his system — which he insists will be hard to achieve in an expanded pool.

“We’ve seen how things have changed, QMB (Quentin Millora-Brown) coming in, Japeth (Aguilar) retiring, this is a normal progression for a basketball team,” he said.

“You want to continually grow and we’ll see how things go.”

Gilas hosts the Aussies for the first time since the infamous Philippine Arena brawl during the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifier back on 2 July 2018.