Seeing young guns at a Gilas Pilipinas practice is a breath of fresh air. After stubbornly refusing to expand the national team pool despite recent poor performances, Tim Cone at long last infused some youth into the team by adding Quentin Millora-Brown and Juan Gomez de Liaño in time for Gilas’ upcoming home-and-home with Guam to officially start the journey to FIBA World Cup qualification.
The addition of Millora-Brown and Gomez de Liaño isn’t a changing of the guard. Neither is it a complete overhaul, as some fans clamored after Gilas Pilipinas’ disastrous campaign at the FIBA Asia Cup in August. But it is a step in the right direction—a sign that maybe, just maybe, the infamously stubborn Cone is finally seeing the wisdom of giving younger players a chance at donning that Gilas jersey.
Now, make no mistake about it: Cone’s reliance on his veteran Asian Games-winning nucleus has merits because familiarity tightens execution, and only continuity breeds familiarity. But in the case of this Gilas iteration under Cone, that familiarity has become a crutch. The program grew static. The national team pool—meant to be a living, evolving system—began to feel like an exclusive club with a permanently closed door.
Millor-Brown, Gomez de Liaño Get Onboard
So, thank goodness Cone opened that door, albeit partially, and brought Millora-Brown and Gomez de Liaño onboard. In doing so, the PBA’s winningest coach finally gave Gilas more developmental runway—something badly needed for a core heavily reliant on 30-somethings to carry the burden game in and game out. While it is true that veterans like Justin Brownlee and June Mar Fajardo are ceiling stabilizers, young players such as Kevin Quiambao and Carl Tamayo are ceiling raisers. Millora-Brown and Gomez de Liaño can be the latter as they give the Gilas program more future-proofing—both are only 25 and are about to enter their prime—and positional depth, both in the near and long term.
This move also breaks the stagnation that had set in during Cone’s tenure, which was marked by sensational victories early, and only heartbreak lately. His initial refusal to expand the pool created frustration, even tension. It suggested the program was stuck in place, unwilling to adapt to the modern international game where length, versatility, and youth development are currency. By finally choosing to expand the pool, Cone is embracing what every successful national program has already mastered: evolution.
The timing is just about right as well, though critics would argue that this move is long overdue. Nevertheless, getting those two young players onboard means they will now get a taste of Cone’s precise, exacting system, learn his reads and philosophies on both ends, and start developing a familiarity and chemistry with the holdovers. This process takes time, and finally starting it now means both Millora-Brown and Gomez de Liaño would be ready down the road should Cone decide to include either or both in the Magic 12 (potentially against New Zealand and/or Australia).
Small Progress Is Still Progress
Is this a complete transformation? Not yet. But, again, it is progress—genuine, overdue progress.
Critics can bemoan all they want about how long it took Cone to finally take this step, and why he stopped at only two new players when he could have added a few more. But slow, incremental progress is still progress, and it’s certainly better than nothing. And—who knows?—it might even be a prelude to something bigger and better: a younger, more dynamic Gilas with the country’s best young players at the core of it all. It could be the beginning of what the program should have been all along: a pipeline, not a private club; a system, not a static roster.
So, yes, Cone deserves a modicum of credit for taking this step of adding Millora-Brown and Gomez de Liaño. It would’ve been easy for him to double down on the familiar, to treat this Guam window as a formality, and simply ride the veterans. Instead, he chose a path that takes into account the future of Gilas Pilipinas as much as the present.
And if Cone continues on this trajectory—rewarding performance, encouraging competition, and cultivating a deeper, younger, more dynamic pool—then this Guam window won’t just be another qualifier. It will be a moment in time for Gilas Pilipinas. It will be the moment its coach finally began building forward, not just holding steady.
