Phl cagers developing chemistry, cohesion
GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone believes that fielding separate Gilas Pilipinas squads in two major international events is a smart decision.
Photograph courtesy of FIBA
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GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone believes that fielding separate Gilas Pilipinas squads in two major international events is a smart decision.
Photograph courtesy of FIBA
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Gilas Pilipinas’ Asian Games-bound team has been training for a couple of weeks to build chemistry and develop cohesion.
Approaching the final stretch of their build-up for the gold medal defense in the Aichi-Nagoya edition, Gilas flew to South Korea on Wednesday for a short camp and a couple of friendlies with its Korean counterparts.
The Philippine squad will then travel to Japan on 7 September to begin its campaign starting on the 11th against Bahrain.
Aside from the team’s training in the last stage of its preparation, head coach Tim Cone will also be making his adjustments to a different — relatively smaller — Gilas crew and playing in a system not his own.
Basically, Cone is the “newest” member of the squad after fulfilling his duties with a different Gilas crew that won back-to-back games at home against Jordan and Iran in the fourth window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
“So, you’re actually asking the wrong person about what’s going on with the Asian Games team. You should be talking to Coach Richard (Del Rosario) because he’s now been heading that up so far,” Cone quipped.
The decorated tactician had been preoccupied with the FIBA window Gilas side. He had given his assistant coaches Del Rosario, Jong Uichico and Josh Reyes free rein to mold the Asiad squad using their own system.
“It’s a different system. They’re not playing my system,” said Cone, who has been vocal about his system revolving around big men.
It will now be a challenge for the 68-year-old coach to call the shots for a team that will rely on speed and quickness to compensate for the lack of height.
Gilas will shoot for a championship repeat sans 7-foot-3 Kai Sotto, 6-foot-11 AJ Edu and recently retired from a 13-year national team duty June Mar Fajardo.
Cone only saw the Asiad Gilas a couple of times during the past two weeks of training.
“I haven’t really seen the progress except for the scrimmage we had against the Asian Games team,” Cone shared.
“Those were in the two scrimmages we had against the Asian Games team in back-to-back days. That’s the only time I’ve been able to see them.”
Aside from adjusting to the pieces he has, Cone is also playing a waiting game for naturalized player Justin Brownlee.
The only player left in the Gilas team that won the Hangzhou Asian Games gold three years ago to end the Philippines’ 61-year drought has yet to show up after returning to the United States to recover and rehabilitate from a spate of injuries, including hamstring and knee issues.
Brownlee, however, has been reserved a spot in the 12-man lineup that includes Robert Bolick, Don Trollano, Jerrick Ahanmisi, Sedrick Barefield, Zav Lucero, Adrian Nocum, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, Brandon Bates, RJ Abarrientos Justin Arana and Justine Baltazar.
