Wala pang napipili sina Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone at kanyang coaching staff kung sino ang papalit kay Roger Pogoy sa 12-man roster para sa 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Ayon kay Cone, malalaman ang pinal na desisyon sa gagawing managers’ meeting sa Disyembre 3, na bisperas ng umpisa ng men’s basketball competitions ng SEA Games sa Mall of Asia Arena.
“We haven’t decided that,” wika ni Cone. “We don’t have to decide until December 3. It will be a medical replacement. We will secure a medical release for RR that will allow us to add somebody from the pool.”
Posible umanong kunin ang hahalili kay Pogoy kina Greg Slaughter, Scottie Thompson, o Art Dela Cruz, na mga final cuts sa inisyal na 15-man pool.
“It’s obviously going to be Greg, Scottie, or Art because those are the guys that are here with us and doing the work and know the system and everything. It will most likely be one of those three. We just haven’t made the decision yet,” ani Cone.
Inamin naman ng coach na kinonsidera rin nila si Jayson Castro bilang kapalit ni Pogoy, ngunit umayaw ito dahil nagpapagaling pa ito mula sa injuries.
“We did inquire whether he can come back but he’s got a couple of injuries that he is battling. He is afraid to get back in and get reinjured again with us. The two-week break that he is going to get before the start of the semifinals is valuable to him,” sambit ni Cone.
Sa kabila nito, naniniwala si Cone na malakas pa ring koponan ang Gilas.
“When you look at our lineup, we got enough shooters. We’ve got LA (Tenorio), Stanley (Pringle), Matt (Wright), Marcio (Lassiter), Troy (Rosario). We can still put a real good shooting team if we want to. We still have a lot of versatility in the lineup. Point guards are really strong so we feel good about where we are.
“Sure we would have liked to keep those two guys around but those are the things you don’t have control over. Control the things you do and we got our guys that we need,” ani Cone.
