MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone said he and his coaching staff will use the next few days to figure out how to maximize the skills of the players as the national team prepares to defend its Asian Games men’s basketball crown in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
The Philippines is coming off two blowout losses to the Korean national team in their Hana Bank Invitational over the weekend in Suwon City.
“We haven’t figured out how to best use the skills of our guys… yet. But me and our staff will be better and we’ll be better in helping our players prepare for what’s ahead. No need to panic,” said Cone.
Filipino netizens though expressed their concern over the Gilas-Asiad team, which is a completely different team from the Gilas squad that scored a two-game sweep of its home games in the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers fourth window a week ago.
For one, the Japan-bound Gilas team doesn’t have the size to really dominate the paint, something Kai Sotto and AJ Edu provided in the recent window.
Team chemistry remains a thing to work on as well since the players have only been practicing together for a little over two weeks.
Gilas lost by an average of 28 points against South Korea, which is coming off a recent split of its own two-game stint in the FIBA window.
The next four days will be crucial as Cone and his staff try to address key areas that need improvement before plunging into action on Friday against Bahrain in the opening of the group stage.
The Philippine team then, battles Kazakhstan on Saturday, before going up against many-time Asian champion China in an early collision between two long-time rivals that last met in the 2023 Asian Games semifinals in Hangzhou.
Gilas actually pulled off a nailbiting 77-76 comeback win behind Justin Brownlee’s heroics.
