Gilas Pilipinas against Australia in the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers. Photo from FIBA Basketball.MANILA — Gilas Pilipinas went winless in the second window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, and head coach Tim Cone hinted that changes could be in store when they return to action later this year.
“It's back to the drawing board for me a little bit,” said Cone after their 66-93 loss to Australia on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena. “Like I said earlier, I think we're going to have to look a little bit at our offense, maybe try to simplify things a little more.”
READ: Gilas still can’t crack Australia code, ends home stand winless
Against New Zealand, Gilas shot just 32.5% (26-of-80) from the field and 18.9% from three. They followed that up by shooting 34.4% (22-of-64) overall and 29% (9-of-31) from beyond the arc against the Aussies on Sunday.
While Cone touched on possible adjustments, he emphasized that the solution lies in maximizing the current roster rather than bringing in new names to address their shooting woes.
“No complaints about our team. We have shooters. We got Dwight Ramos, Juan [Gomez de Liaño], Justin [Brownlee], Kevin Quiambao, and Calvin [Oftana]. We got guys who can shoot the lights out,” he said.
“It's just that we're not generating the shots that we want to generate. It's about getting the quality of shots. But I don't think there's a problem with our shooting. We just haven't shot the ball that well,” Cone added.
On the defensive end, the Barangay Ginebra mentor said the team has shown progress — and now the challenge is sustaining it in the next windows.
“We base our team on being a great defensive team. We want our guys to come out and really lock in defensively. That takes pressure off our offense,” he said.
“Like I said, we held New Zealand to 69 points, and then we held Australia to 38 at halftime. We’ve got to hold teams down so that we can have a chance to win. We're not going to get into shootouts with these guys,” Cone added.