Tim Cone wants to keep Gilas Pilipinas intact for 4 years

Tim Cone expressed his desire to maintain the current 12-man team in order to foster unity and development among the players as they compete in various international tournaments.

“This team is going to stay together through every window,” said Cone during the Philippine Sportswriters Association awards night at the Diamond Hotel on Monday.

“If we play Southeast Asian Games, we expect to play this team in the Southeast Asian Games. If we play Asian Games, World Cup qualifiers, FIBA Cup, FIBA Cup qualifiers, (we play this team),” he added.

The newly installed head coach of Gilas Pilipinas has tapped Filipino imports from the Japan B.League, namely Kai Sotto, AJ Edu, Dwight Ramos, and Carl Tamayo, as well as Kevin Quiambao, the UAAP Season 86 Most Valuable Player from La Salle.

Additionally, six players from the PBA have been included in the team, including June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Scottie Thompson, Jamie Malonzo, Chris Newsome, and Calvin Oftana.

The team’s designated naturalized player is Justin Brownlee, but his eligibility in upcoming tournaments is still pending FIBA’s decision.

“As we are saying, we want to keep this team intact because every time we either grow from the success or failure that we have. It kinda looks like a PBA team or NBA team or B.League team, any kind of basketball team, you keep a team together as much as you can and you try to get them together and learn from the failures and successes,” said the PBA’s winningest mentor.

Any necessary adjustments to the team will be made in the event of health or injury concerns.

Despite the challenges that come with coaching Gilas, Cone views it as a great honor to lead the national team.

“Obviously I’m incredibly honored to be the holder of this position,” said Cone. “It’s such a sacred position to be the national team coach. We’ve tried to develop a system in which we can satisfy all the stakeholders.”