Once upon a time, Quentin Millora-Brown was waging a legal battle to be eligible to play as a local for Gilas Pilipinas. Now, over the course of two games, it appears he has won over national team coach Tim Cone, who even started the young big in Gilas’ first game in the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers against Guam.
Asked about his assessment of Millora-Brown after Gilas completed its Window 1 sweep of Guam on Monday, Cone admitted both player and coaching staff are still in the feeling-out process and that there are still levels yet to be unlocked. Even so, Cone’s initial prognosis of QMB is highly positive.
“We’re still exploring his game, he’s still exploring his game within the system. There’s a lot more levels for him to go, but the initial look is that he’s just what the doctor ordered,” Cone said of QMB. “He’s that weakside big man… he’s a really strong defender. He battled [Tai] Wesley really well, then went around and battled [Jonathan] Galloway really well, and those guys are high-level players. And then he got to the offensive boards, he ran the floor… he’s just a very, very active big—and, again, that’s just what the doctor ordered for us.”
Quentin Millora-Brown Plays Big for Gilas
It’s easy to see why Cone is high on Quentin Millora-Brown. In two games so far, the former UAAP champion with the UP Fighting Maroons put up 6.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, and 1.5 blocks in a little over 19 minutes of action. And, indeed, he acquitted himself fairly well against Guam’s bigs in Galloway and Wesley and proved mobile enough when switched out onto guards on the perimeter.
Mostly, though, Millora-Brown played big, walling off the paint with his size, grabbing rebounds at a high rate, and finishing off offensive boards and drop passes. He also showed some remarkable big-to-big chemistry with another Gilas young gun in AJ Edu, with whom he hooked up for two high-low plays—one resulting in a dunk and the other in two free throws.
But as Cone pointed out, QMB is still exploring his place in the Gilas system, and the coaching staff is likewise figuring out how to best use the team’s newest frontcourt addition. Hopefully, with more time, Quentin Millora-Brown can go to those levels Cone alluded to—and that could, in turn, help nudge Gilas a tier or two higher.
