MANILA, Philippines—Whether how Gilas Pilipinas performs in the upcoming 2025 Fiba Asia Cup Qualifiers, coach Tim Cone made one thing certain.

This 2024 has been and still is the squad’s “trial” year.

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After just recently revamping the program a year ago after the 2023 Fiba World Cup, Cone said his second year—first, officially—as head coach for Gilas is still part of the a trial and error phase.

“This is a trial year for us. This whole program we’ve done this year has been a trial to see what works and doesn’t work,” said the Ginebra coach just days before the Asia Cup qualifying tournament in Manila.

SCHEDULE: Gilas Pilipinas at Fiba Asia Cup 2025 qualifiers

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“We’re still tweaking things, looking at it and at the year-end of December, Al (Panlilio) and Erika (Dy) will reassess everything that’s gone on and will work from there.”

Since Cone’s official appointment as Gilas head coach in 2024, the 12-man core remained intact with alterations being made only due to injuries.

When big men AJ Edu and June Mar Fajardo weren’t able to play for the first window of the Asia Cup qualifiers in February, Cone brought in Japeth Aguilar and Mason Amos as reserves with the core intact.

How to watch Gilas Pilipinas at Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers

Then when Scottie Thompson was unable to suit up for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July, Cone gave the heavy duty to Chris Newsome, leaving the core all the more the same.

Instead of being fully frustrated with the occasional changes during a trial year, Cone said he welcomed the challenges as a chance for him to “figure things out” as they move forward.

“We’re still trying to figure things out, how big the lineup should be, who should be in it and if this coaching staff is the right group to do this and move forward. This is a trial year for us and we’re still trying to fine tune everything that goes on,” Cone said.

“There’s a reason why the pool’s small and hasn’t expanded and that’s because we don’t have extended time to teach all the time. The days of 4-6 weeks of prep time for tournament time are over.”