At A Glance
- Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone admitted that the health and fitness of his players are certainly a concern at this point of their preparations for the FIBA 2025 Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia next month.
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone admitted that the health and fitness of his players are certainly a concern at this point of their preparations for the FIBA 2025 Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia next month.
The multi-titled mentor said PBA players are coming off a grueling Philippine Cup playoffs and are nursing injuries while members of the team that are playing overseas are coming off layoffs and should return back to their game shapes.
“I think the biggest issue we have right now is we got a lot of players who are just finishing a really, really long season… and then you've got guys like AJ (Edu) and Dwight (Ramos) and Justin (Brownlee) that need to get in shape,” said Cone on the sidelines of the unveiling of the official Gilas Pilipinas jerseys of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and Adidas.
Cone stressed the need for Gilas to strike the perfect balance between giving the banged-up players some rest while also giving the other players the chance to be in shape.
June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez and Calvin Oftana are still playing in the all-Filipino conference Finals while Scottie Thompson, RJ Abarrientos, Japeth Aguilar, Jamie Malonzo and Troy Rosario were all coming off a seven-game series in the semis.
“They're really worn out. As you said, they're nicked and they have some injury concerns. Jamie, definitely. Scottie definitely. Even RJ was dinged up a little bit. Japeth. So, that's a concern because we have those guys that are really worn out and tired,” he added.
“We have to push those guys and yet rest the other guys. So, you know, there's a lot of dynamics going on trying to get this team all together. And that's what we'll try to do,“ said Cone.
So far, Gilas is doing Monday practices every week though players like Ramos, Edu, Brownlee, Chris Newsome and Carl Tamayo are all coming off rest and vacation can freely do their personal workouts at the Meralco Gym.