MANILA, Philippines — Tim Cone reiterated that despite Gilas Pilipinas’ failed championship bid in the just-concluded FIBA Asia Cup, continuity of the basketball program remains a priority moving forward.

Gilas just saw its Asia Cup c gold medal aspirations come to an end mid last week when the national team absorbed a sound 84-60 beating at the hands of top seed Australia.

The Boomers went on to win the tournament after scoring a come-from-behind victory over China, 90-89 for their third straight Asia Cup championship early Monday.

Cone said he’s open to adding a few players into the current Gilas pool, citing naturalized big man Ange Kouame, Rhenz Abando, Zavier Lucero, and Ginebra stalwarts Troy Rosario as well as RJ Abarrientos, along with Filipino-American Quentin Millora-Brown.

Millora-Brown, known by his initials QMB, has been making some noise in social media and the sports news in general after being reclassified recently as the local by FIBA.

“These guys, they’re uppermost in our minds and we’re looking at others. But the bottom line is we couldn’t get that done before the FIBA Asia,” Cone told former PBA commissioner Noli Eala in the Power and Play sports program over the weekend.

Abarrientos and Rosario were able to join the Gilas practice during the Philippine team’s preparation for the FIBA Asia Cup. The two were even included in the brief camp in Pampanga.

Abando, the high-flying guard out of Letran, along with Lucero, and Koaume though failed to join Gilas.

The 6-foot-2 Abando and Kouame joined Strong Group, which successfully retained the William Jones Cup crown last July, while the 6-foot-6 Lucero was still in the United States.

“There could be one or two more (additions). But the idea is that the program started with an idea of continuity,” shared Cone.

“We wanted Ange Kouame to come and join us in this last Asia Cup in terms of just being with the team and practicing with us, but he went on to the Strong Group and played in the Jones Cup so he wasn’t available to us,” he added. “Same thing happened with Rhenz Abando. We wanted to bring Rhenz in to work with us along with RJ and Troy. We also wanted Lucero as well, but Lucero went to the States and his papers weren’t ready.”

A big what if for Cone though was Millora-Brown.

The all-time PBA winningest coach witnessed QMB play during Gilas’ send-off game against the Macau Black Bears, where the former University of the Philippines one-and-done big man played as one of their reinforcements.

Cone felt the experience of playing in the FIBA Asia Cup would have helped introduce him to the system and the culture they had been trying to build at Gilas.

“Imagine if we could have had him in the Asia Cup. It would have been awesome,” stressed Cone.

“He would have already have had his feet wet. He would have been playing, he would have known the guys.”