GILAS Pilipinas leaves for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament behind an 11-man crew on Tuesday night.
Coach Tim Cone isn't concern about going to Riga, Latvia with just 11 players on hand following the last-minute exclusion of guard Scottie Thompson due to a bulging disc.
While efforts to get an additional player to fill in the spot left by the former PBA MVP didn't push through, Cone said he's fine playing with an undermanned unit.
"I don't feel we're shorthanded at all. I'm not a guy who plays 11 or 12 guys anyway. I'm really an eight or nine-man rotation," said the national team coach on the eve of Gilas' departure for Europe.
"The reason you have 12 guys is not necessarily for the game, but to have 12 guys in practice in case somebody goes down."
Sponsored content: Gilas already run-through playing with only 11 personnel on its bench during Tuesday's send-off game against the Taiwan Mustangs.
Cone utilized all his players in a 74-64 win at the Philsports Arena. Naturalized player Justine Brownlee had the most number of minutes with 34, while late addition Mason Amos of Ateneo had the least stint with close to five minutes.
Aside from Brownlee and Amos, also with the national team competing in the OQT slated from July 2-7 are seven-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, Kai Sotto, Carl Tamayo, Dwight Ramos, Chris Newsome, CJ Perez, Japeth Aguilar, Kevin Quiambao, and Calvin Oftana.
Gilas will have stops first in Turkey where it will play a pair of friendlies with the host country and Poland.
From there, the Filipinos will go straight to Latvia.
Sponsored content: "I think we're better off going 11 strong," stressed Cone. "It's not that big of a deal that we're just 11-strong." (RG)
