By REYNALD MAGALLON
Trying to make up for the huge chunk of talent Gilas Pilipinas will be missing from its World Cup squad, national team interim coach Tim Cone wants to get all the best available talent from the PBA to compose the final roster for the Asian Games.
Foremost in his mind is the flamboyant TNT guard Mikey Williams.
“One of the guys who we’re talking about who’s still up in the air is, and you guys all know him since he can be a real impact force, Mikey Williams,” shared Cone.
Cone believes the sweet-shooting Williams could be a real game changer for the Nationals.
That is if Williams is available in time for next week’s training.
“But he’s not a lock on the team since we’re still trying to get him here on time to start preparing for us. He’s a game-changer if we could get him on the team with his ability to score and stretch the defense,” he added.
“We’re not gonna bring our best players at the moment because we’re not gonna have the guys from Japan, the guys from Korea but we’re gonna get the best players who are available and try to make them the best team and I think that’s important. There are still a lot of guys who can play from the PBA,” he added.
Cone managed to prevent a hard reset for the national team with World Cup players Scottie Thompson, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar along with pool members Calvin Oftana, Chris Newsome and naturalized player Justin Brownlee forming the nucleus of the Asiad team.
His coaching staff also retained long-time Gilas assistants Josh Reyes and Jong Uichico and were joined by Richard Del Rosario and LA Tenorio.
But there are still roles that need to be filled and that is what team manager Alfrancis Chua is currently working on before the Nationals begin training on Monday, Sept. 11.
“You can’t win if you don’t bring your best players,” said Cone.
“That’s what’s always been my opinion about the national team — if you don’t bring your best players, you’re not gonna win then you have to get your best players to be your best team,” he added.
Cone said filling up the roles left with the best talents would be crucial for the Nationals to be competitive in the quadrennial meet especially that it was the positions being vacated by the likes of Dwight Ramos, Rhenz Abando, Kai Sotto, AJ Edu and Jordan Clarkson.
