Cone wants his a-team tight

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone is not keen on expanding the training pool for his A-Team anytime soon.

And that’s despite seeing the available talent in the Gilas team that won the gold medal in the recent Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok.

Observers have referred to that team as the “C” team, one that was denied of some of the biggest names in Philippine basketball, including naturalized player Justin Brownlee.

Cone was a huge fan of the alternative Gilas squad that was handled by decorated coach Norman Black, and defied all odds in delivering the country’s 20th SEA Games gold in basketball.

He said there were players in that lineup that would fit in his A-Team.

Among them were Robert Bolick, Ray Parks Jr., Thirdy Ravena and Matthew Wright. But Cone said there’s a reason why he keeps his A-Team core small and intact given the tight schedule of the PBA and overseas leagues for FIBA tournaments.

“We’ve had all those guys on our radar but there are only 12 guys,” said Cone on the heels of Gilas’ 70-64 win over host Thailand in the controversial but satisfying finale, crediting the return to fine form of Jamie Malonzo.

“We don’t want to increase it to a huge pool because it’s too unwieldy for the time of preparation that we have,” he said.

Cone admitted having Bolick, Parks and Wright in discussions all these years along with Jordan Heading and the Ravena brothers (Kiefer and Thirdy) before picking his final squad that mainly competes in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments.

Since being named the permanent head coach of Gilas last year, Cone veered away from a bigger national team pool – usually made up of 20 players every tournament – by establishing a 12-man core.

For Cone, having a big pool is only applicable with long preparation time like Gilas under coach Chot Reyes for the 2023 FIBA World Cup hosting after being together for more than three months. But the FIBA calendar is long, winding and with only short breaks now, thus his decision to keep a tight knit unit.

Leading the permanent team that made waves overseas including a massive 89-80 upset of world No. 6 Latvia at its own home in the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers is Brownlee, nine-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo, 7-foot-3 sensation Kai Sotto and Japan league standout Dwight Ramos.

Also in the fray are rising stars Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo and AJ Edu, PBA vets Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, CJ Perez, Calvin Oftana and Malonzo. Cone recently added Quentin Millora-Brown, Troy Rosario, RJ Abarrientos and Juan Gomez de Liaño.

They are tasked to compete mainly in bigger tournaments like the FIBA Asia, World Cup Qualifiers and the upcoming 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya leading to the ultimate goal of making it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as part of Cone’s four-year roadmap.

And for him, that might be the pool for good as Gilas braces for the second window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers next February at home against Australia and New Zealand in Group A.

“When you’re talking about maybe five, six practices before you have to play, you can’t bring in 20 guys and get them ready. So, like I said, there’s only 12 guys,” he clarified.

Cone’s Gilas is coming off a 2-0 sweep of the first window against Guam just before the SEAG, which wasn’t part of the FIBA calendar as well as the schedule of PBA and overseas leagues that prompted the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to field a different squad.