A healthy Scottie Thompson puts everyone in the Gilas Pilipinas roster back in their comfort zone heading into the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifier.
Thompson, the obvious missing piece in the Filipinos’ FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament campaign, will make his Gilas return when the country hosts a pair of second window matches starting Thursday.
Gilas coach Tim Cone is relieved to finally have his starting point guard back after skipping Gilas’ tour of duty in Riga, Latvia last July due to a recurring back issue.
With the Barangay Ginebra two-way guard in the fold, Gilas will have a full backcourt, specifically a main ball-handler, which would ease the burden on Chris Newsome orchestrating the offense.
“Scottie kinda equalizes everything. New is really our in-game stopper and we want him to really lock in on that role. When we went to the OQT he was still that stopper but he had so much more he had to worry about in terms of handling the ball,” Cone said as his squad braces for a dogfight against New Zealand on Thursday and Hong Kong on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Newsome had to slide down to a point guard position during the OQT while also fulfilling his defensive role.
The situation also forced another two-guard and small forward Dwight Ramos to switch to ball-handler and at times playmaker.
“And then Dwight (Ramos) was played out of position because he had to be the off-guard, the secondary ball-handler and the backup point guard,” Cone said.
“Now, Scottie’s presence kind of moved everybody back to their roles and you have that tremendous energy guy.”
Thompson’s presence brings everything back into place.
“With Scottie back, it allows New to get back into his role. Maybe come off the bench and be our primary stopper. Dwight can focus on being that off-guard or small forward player, which is where he’s really, really good at. He can get back to doing what he’s really good at,” Cone said.
“So, it puts us all in comfortable roles with Scottie back in.”