Following his reappointment as the men’s national basketball team head coach, Tim Cone is working with the cards he has been dealt with when Gilas Pilipinas returns to action in the Asian Games in China late this month.

With player unavailability greeting Cone at the helm, the Ginebra coach is looking to make the stint count when he leads the Philippines once again at the Asiad with the men's team bracketed with Jordan, Bahrain and Thailand in Group C. 

Initially, there were seven players from the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup roster that made up the supposed 12-man squad in June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Kiefer Ravena, Roger Pogoy, Japeth Aguilar, CJ Perez and Jamie Malonzo.

However, only Fajardo, Thompson, Aguilar and Pogoy have committed to see action in the continental tournament. 

During their joint open practice on Thursday, Sept. 14, with the Gilas Women, Fajardo and Aguilar were the only ones in attendance along with Chris Newsome, who was cut from the World Cup roster, while Jason Perkins, Calvin Oftana, Justin Brownlee and returning stars Calvin Abueva and Terrence Romeo completed the cast. 

Set to join the squad in the next practice are naturalized player Ange Kouame, Mo Tautuaa and Thompson who all had family emergencies to attend to. 

“This is the Final 12. There are no other choices. This is the Final 12. Stanley (Pringle) is our 13th in case something happens. He’s sacrificed himself coming here and working with us even though he doesn’t have a spot on the team at this point. Unless something God forbid happens to one of the players. Other than that, the 12 includes the nine we had here in this practice,” Cone said. 

After the World Cup which the country just co-hosted, most of the players were quick to reveal that they already begged off from duty and have since returned to their club commitments overseas including Dwight Ramos and Kai Sotto. 

Thankfully, the reinforcements of Brownlee and Kouame will be available for the Philippines at the same time since the Asian Games does not follow FIBA’s eligibility rules. 

Despite the situation, Cone is pretty upbeat to have a group of players whose strongest suit is their excitement to be part of the lineup and not needing any more motivation in representing the country. 

“Right now, we had four guys, three of them ironically had family emergencies. Four players aren’t here. But they are all available, everybody wants to be here. I think that’s the biggest part about this team, the strongest part about this team is that they’re excited to be on the national team,” Cone said. 

“They are excited of the prospect of playing against China, Korea, Bahrain and Jordan. They are excited about that. So that’s not something I have to motivate or worry about. They’re really motivated. It’s just a matter of trying to pull them together and giving them a concept in which they can perform and that’s my job. I like that I don’t have to motivate cause they’re excited to be here,” he added.