Gilas pool expanded to 16 after QMB, Kouame, Abarrientos addition

October 2 ------ GILAS PILIPINAS has expanded its pool to 16 players for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers after the inclusion of Quentin Millora-Brown, Ange Kouame, and RJ Abarrientos.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) announced the long-overdue expansion of Tim Cone's pool on its official Facebook page.

The pool already includes the 12 players that saw action for Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025, namely Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, June Mar Fajardo, Carl Tamayo, Scottie Thompson, AJ Edu, Chris Newsome, Cjay Perez, Calvin Oftana, Japeth Aguilar, and Jamie Malonzo.

Kai Sotto, who missed the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 due to an ACL tear, remains in the pool. The pool already includes the 12 players that saw action for Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025, namely Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, June Mar Fajardo, Carl Tamayo, Scottie Thompson, AJ Edu, Chris Newsome, Cjay Perez, Calvin Oftana, Japeth Aguilar, and Jamie Malonzo.

Kai Sotto, who missed the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 due to an ACL tear, remains in the pool. “Continuity is still the main priority of coach Tim Cone, but we saw it fit to add a couple of pieces to the training pool,” said SBP president Al Panlilio. With the entry of Kouame, Gilas will now have two naturalized players on the pool, but the team needs to pick only one during the actual FIBA World Cup qualifiers where the Philippines debuts with a home-and-away set against Guam in November. “Obviously, Justin will still be the top choice in terms of having a naturalized player in the line-up, but we need to take advantage of actually having multiple naturalized players," said the SBP president.

Source: spin.ph