Tim Cone has come under fire from fans following Gilas Pilipinas Men’s disappointing performances in both the 2nd Doha International Cup and the final window of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers.
After suffering heavy defeats to a Wael Arakji-less Lebanon (75-54) and an Egypt squad not even competing in the Asia Cup (86-55), the Philippines endured another blow with a shocking 91-84 loss to Chinese Taipei before falling in lopsided fashion to New Zealand, 87-70.
These setbacks fueled calls to expand the Gilas pool, which currently consists of 15 players. With Kai Sotto ruled out for the rest of the year due to an ACL tear, many believe the team needs reinforcements, particularly in the frontcourt.
Three days after the qualifiers ended, Cone acknowledged the growing clamor for roster adjustments. However, he pointed out that expanding the pool is far more complicated than it seems.
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“There are so many things beyond what people are talking about. It’s not just that easy to pull somebody out, add to the pool, or get a bigger pool. There are finances involved, budgets, extra travel time, and more practice time. It’s not as simple as just saying, ‘Okay, now we’re going to go to 15 or 18 or 20 people.’ It’s not that simple,” Cone said after Barangay Ginebra’s 115-93 win over NorthPort in the 2025 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals.
“We came in with a program, and we’re going to stick to that program as much as we can. We’re not going to be too hard-headed about it—though I guess that’s the way I’m being described at this point,” he added.
“We suffered some failure at this point, but hopefully, we can learn from it. You don’t learn from success—you learn from failure.”
The current Gilas pool is headlined by PBA stars Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Chris Newsome, Calvin Oftana, and Jamie Malonzo.
Also in the lineup are overseas-based players Dwight Ramos, Kai Sotto, AJ Edu, Kevin Quiambao, and Carl Tamayo.
To address manpower issues, Cone brought Japeth Aguilar out of national team retirement and added La Salle forward Mason Amos to the pool.
For the final window, he also called up Troy Rosario. However, both Rosario and Amos were left out of the rosters against Chinese Taipei and New Zealand.
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Cone has consistently emphasized that integrating players into his system is the most challenging aspect of expanding the pool.
AJ Edu, who made his first appearance in the cycle during Window 3, was a prime example of this difficulty.
“The idea was that with AJ’s addition, we would become a better defensive team. But again, we spent so much time trying to integrate him into the triangle that we didn’t really integrate him into our defense,” Cone admitted, referring to Edu, who averaged 8.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in his two games.
“Hindsight is the best sight, and if I could do it again, I’d make sure that we got locked in defensively before we got locked into the triangle. But that’s on me.”
Given these challenges, Cone remains hesitant to make changes to the current pool.
“At this point, no, we’re not going to add to the pool or subtract from it unless there are guys who don’t want to join us anymore. As long as these guys want to continue to play and represent, we’re going to let them. People are going to get angry about it, and they’re going to get angry at me about it, I guess. That’s the bottom line,” he said as Gilas gears up for the Asia Cup proper in a few months.
“But we came in with a program. We came in with an idea, and we’re not going to change it at the first sign of panic. We’ll see what happens. Let’s take another chance.”
