Tim Cone: Juan Gomez de Liaño a key part of Gilas’ future despite missing squad vs. Guam

Converge FiberXers star Juan Gomez de Liaño received a significant boost in his young professional career after being called up to the Gilas Pilipinas training pool for the first time in three years, as head coach Tim Cone began preparations for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers.

Gomez de Liaño has been one of the breakout performers of the ongoing 2025 PBA Philippine Cup, earning three PBA Press Corps Player of the Week citations—from opening week (October 5–12) and again for October 22–26. The rookie guard turned heads immediately, posting triple-doubles in each of his first three games, including a historic showing in a 129–92 victory over the Titan Ultra Giants. He became the first rookie since Scottie Thompson in 2016 to record a triple-double in his PBA debut.

Despite his stellar form and strong showing in the national team camp, the 24-year-old was ultimately left out of Cone’s final roster, with the veteran coach opting to stick with players more familiar with the system. RJ Abarrientos was selected as one of the guards.

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Cone, however, emphasized that Gomez de Liaño remains firmly in Gilas’ long-term plans.

“Juan is a future Gilas player. He will be on this team at some point; it just happened that he is still new to the system. What we did with him is we laid a foundation for Juan in terms of him learning the system this time and then being able to go with it next time,” Cone said.

“JUAN IS A FUTURE GILAS PLAYER.”

Tim Cone discusses why Juan Gomez de Liaño missed the #GilasPilipinas Final 12 for the first window of the 2027 #FIBAWorldCup Asian Qualifiers. | via @romwelanzures pic.twitter.com/07uw8EuBHz

— ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) November 24, 2025

“He is going to be a fixture on this team. Instead of saying we are sorry to Juan, it was like congratulations, Juan. You proved your worth. You are going to be on this team. There’s no doubt about it.

“He really is a stud. There was no reason for us not to bring him this time except for the fact that we wanted to be loyal to the guys we had,” he added.

Gomez de Liaño wasn’t the only casualty of the final cut, as Jamie Malonzo and Troy Rosario were also left out. All three, however, remain strong candidates for inclusion in the national team bound for the 2025 Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok this December.

“Those three were amazing. Troy is always amazing. I see him every day in Ginebra practices and he never takes a moment off and plays incredibly hard all the time. And Jamie came in incredibly motivated; he was early at work and worked really, really hard,” Cone noted.

The final Gilas roster features the usual national team mainstays, including Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos, June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, and Japeth Aguilar. Quentin Millora-Brown is set to make his Gilas debut, while Carl Tamayo and AJ Edu are scheduled to join the squad on Monday, November 25.

The Philippines will face Guam in home-and-away matchups to open the first window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on November 28 and December 1.

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