Why not have Jordan Clarkson? Or any other player in the Gilas Pilipinas pool? Coach Tim Cone explains the thought process with the existing national team lineup.
Will Jordan Clarkson work in the coach Tim Cone-led Gilas Pilipinas?
It's a question some have raised, with Justin Brownlee reaching 36 years of age and with the dream of the Los Angeles Olympics still four years away.
Though Gilas Pilipinas is still going through the process of naturalizing 28-year-old Bennie Boatwright, some have asked--why not pick Jordan Clarkson again?
After all, the Utah Jazz guard already had experience with Gilas in the Asian Games and in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Coach Tim Cone was candid in answering about JC's viability.
"Jordan's availability is always extremely, extremely limited by the NBA," coach Tim Cone said to One PH's Power & Play, noting how scheduling will be especially difficult with the home and away windows.
"He might be able to show up a few weeks before the World Cup, but then that would defeat all the continuity you have developed over time with the team that you have," he added.
Cone is no stranger to JC, as the winningest coach was an assistant to the Chot Reyes during the World Cup.
"When you bring in a naturalized player at a caliber of Jordan Clarkson, then he impacts the team in so many various ways," Cone shared.
"All the attention, all the touches, everything goes to him and all the players are kinda left like, 'What am I supposed to do?'
'Cause they're not used to it. And that's what happened to us in the World Cup," he recounted.
Clarkson apparently had eight to nine days with the team before the tournament started, while the rest of the team had three months of training.
"It was hard to make that quick adjustment, and that's the whole purpose of this program, so we don't have to adjust, so we have that continuity," he said.
And that is why Cone is sticking to his current pool amid calls to add more players and despite injury woes.
"We felt that continuity, system, familiarity, those things are higher priority than just purely talent level," he said.
"We feel that over time, familiarity and system are more important to the long-term success than just showing up with great players every chance you get," Cone added. "The system, the philosophy this program is taking at this point, we're not going to look for ultimate players all the time."
"We're trying to stay and grow this group that we have."