Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone has nothing but praises for Kai Sotto in his first game back since fully recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that sidelined him from national team duty for almost two years.

The veteran mentor pointed out that more than Sotto’s length, the 7-foot-3 center has the basketball instinct and knowledge comparable to point guards, making the rest of his teammates better while he’s on the floor.

“The thing about Kai, yes, he’s 7-foot-3 but his knowledge of the game, instinct for the game is like a point guard. He is like RJ Abarrientos or Juan Gomez de Liano,” said Cone after Gilas’ 82-81 win over Jordan.

“He’s really that smart and that intelligent, that makes people around him better. Everybody’s better when he’s on the floor whether through passing, scoring or rolling, the attention he grabs, he just makes everybody better,” he added.

And Cone certainly has the numbers to support that.

Without Sotto, Gilas has not beaten teams inside the top 60 of the world rankings through the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers and main tournament and the World Cup Asian qualifiers.

When Sotto’s playing, Gilas is defeating teams way above its ranking in the likes of Latvia and New Zealand. And this time, against a potent Jordan team.

Of course, Sotto’s length also made a ton of differences — evident in the final play when he swatted away what could have been Jordan’s game-winning attempt.

“What was really big tonight was his defense patrolling against Al Dwairi who was a really top class center and also patrolling the paint especially in the second half not allowing Harris and Ybrahim to get to the rim on us,” Cone pointed out

“And Olajuwon at the end. Remember, Olajuwon earlier was getting to the rim with impunity but the last play he get to the rim but of course Kai rejected him,” he added.