Sans ACL-hit Kai Sotto, Gilas Pilipinas players are all accounted for final window of FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers

AS CRUSHING the absence of ACL-hit Kai Sotto is, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone sees a lot to look forward to when the Nationals reconvene next month.

For one, Mr. Cone is thrilled to finally have big man AJ Edu on board for the Feb. 14 to 16 pocket tournament in Qatar and the succeeding final window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers on the road against Chinese Taipei (Feb. 20) and New Zealand (Feb. 23) after missing the entire 2024 campaign due to knee issues.

Then there’s athletic wing Jamie Malonzo, who’s returning to the fold after being sidelined by calf injury last April.

And there’s young forward Carl Tamayo, whom Mr. Cone expects to carry his hot form in the Korean league over to the Gilas program, as well as Kevin Quiambao, who assured his presence after recovering quickly from ankle injury.

“We’re not going to have a lot of prep time for the FIFA Asia (tournament proper) in August so we’re going to use this trip and this window as a chance to prepare the group,” said Mr. Cone, whose crew has already booked their ticket to the Continental meet with a 4-0 sweep of the first two windows of the Qualifiers.

Except for the 7-foot-3 Mr. Sotto, it’s all hands on deck for Mr. Cone’s 14-man team, including Mr. Sotto’s replacement Japeth Aguilar and newly named alternate Troy Rosario.

“We’ll be missing Kai (Sotto) but the good news is we’re going to have AJ (Edu), we’re going to have Jamie (Malonso) back and we’re hoping he continues to round into form in terms of his game. We’ll see how KQ (Quiambao) is and Carl (Tamayo) is killing in Korea at this point so we’re excited about seeing all of his improvement when he gets here. He’s one of the guys who is going to help us replace Kai (Sotto) and he should probably be one of the guys getting major minutes if he continues to play at the level he’s playing in Korea.”

As for Mr. Sotto, Mr. Cone expects the 22-year-old slotman to bet out for nine months to a full year, ruling him out for the Aug. 5 to 17 Asia Cup in Jeddah altogether.

“He’s the key to this program, no doubt about it. What hurts most is the fact that it’s held back his ‘NBA Dream.’” It looked like he was getting real, solid feelers from the NBA right up until he got injured so that’s too bad,” he said.

“I feel really bad about that but again nothing you can do about it, you can’t bring it back can’t do it again and so you move forward. Hopefully, he’ll start to play sometime in the World Cup Qualifiers (slated November 2025 to March 2027),” he added. — Olmin Leyba