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| Scottie Thompson was dearly missed during Gilas' OQT campaign according to Coach Tim Cone. Dennis Acosta (file photo) |
MANILA--Coach Tim Cone believes that Scottie Thompson could have been pivotal in Gilas Pilipinas' FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament campaign.
The Ginebra combo guard was ruled out of Gilas' last chance of making the Paris Olympics due to a back injury.
"Everyone knows how much I rely personally from a coaching stand on Scottie. I mean everything is built around and through him, so it was a big loss for us in Gilas," Cone said when he attended the PBA Draft Combine on Thursday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
Thompson was designated as Gilas' primary point guard, but with him staying home instead to recover, Cone was forced to play Chris Newsome and Dwight Ramos, both listed as shooting guards, out of position.
The transition was fine for Newsome since he had already shifted to the quarterbacking chores since his Meralco days and showed brilliance during the OQT.
On the other hand, Ramos also did well as a point guard since he is also doing it with Levanga Hokkaido, but Cone believes they could have utilized him further as a 2-guard.
"I think we could have gotten more out of Dwight if he had been in a natural position," Cone continued.
"He was still great, and he's always great, but being on a scale of 1-10, he's a 10 in maybe his comfortable position and maybe an eight in an uncomfortable position. So that's kind of what we were forced to do with him and Scottie would have alleviated that."
The lack of a true point guard was evident as Gilas, despite being number one in points during the Riga OQT, was also dead last in limiting turnovers, conceding 17.3 errors per game as they missed out on making the Paris Olympics.
The saddening part is that Thompson remains questionable in the early stages of the upcoming PBA Governors' Cup.
"I'll talk to him in the next couple of days and figure it out. He may miss some time. We'll figure it out later," Cone further said.
"I don't really know where Scottie is at this point. He was not good at all before we left for the Inspire camp. He had taken a turn for the worse since the semifinals of the last conference and just having trouble standing up and walking around."
The PBA's winningest coach added, "Back issues are one of the toughest to really latch on to in terms of how you rehab it and get it right."
Another Ginebra player in Gilas, Jamie Malonzo, has been ruled out for the PBA Governors' Cup and the November window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers due to a calf injury he suffered during the previous Philippine Cup.
This means either Japeth Aguilar or Mason Amos could crack Gilas' lineup again for the November window.
However, Cone also said that he might consider adding more injury reserves for Gilas should the need arise.
"We'll decide at that point who to add and who to ask to see if they're available for us, but we're going to continue to try to stick with our original 12," he said.
On the other hand, with Malonzo taking more time off and Thompson possibly doing the same, Cone said that Ginebra might consider taking a "good point guard" with their first-round pick, the 10th overall pick, and a forward that would take Malonzo's place for the meantime with either of their two second-round picks, the 17th and 22nd selections, during Sunday's PBA Draft at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati.
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