Scottie the equalizer

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is thrilled to have a full-bodied backcourt again after dealing with Scottie Thompson’s absence in their last international sortie.

Thompson was sidelined by a back injury in Gilas’ campaign in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Latvia last July, forcing Chris Newsome, Dwight Ramos and even CJ Perez to do more playmaking on top of their main chores.

With the Ginebra point guard back in harness for next week’s FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers Window 2, it’s full steam ahead for Cone’s guard line.

“Scottie kind of equalizes everything,” said the Gilas mentor of Thompson, who actually led the Nationals in assists with nine when he last suited up in February in their sweep of Hong Kong, 94-64, and Chinese Taipei, 106-53, in the Continental qualifiers’ first window.

Cone noted that without Thompson during the OQT, Newsome took care of ball-handling on top of his primary role as “in-game stopper” while Ramos had to play backup point, too.

“Now Scottie’s presence kind of moves everybody back into their roles. It allows New (Newsome) to maybe come off the bench and be our primary stopper. And then Dwight can really focus on being that off guard or small forward player, which is what he’s really, really good at,” he said.

“And (in Thompson), you have that tremendous energy guy. You can watch Scottie on video as much as you want but until you actually get on the floor and play against him, you don’t realize all the stuff that he’s doing out there. And that’s always a surprise for the other team,” he added.

What the multi-titled coach likes about this guard crew is its ability to defend.

“We’ve got a really good defensive backcourt. And CJ (Perez) is really our most athletic defender as well. As much as we have a tendency to look at, wow, this guy’s a really good player because he can shoot, he can do this, he can do that. But our mindset is you’ve got to be a two-way player,” he said.

“And frankly, you’ve got to start with the defense. And then what you give as offense is great. And so that’s our mindset. And that’s why Scottie and New and Dwight fit that mindset so well, so much for us,” he added.

Cone’s 15-man pool entered camp at Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna yesterday to get the ball rolling for its build-up for the two home games against New Zealand (Nov. 21) and Hong Kong (Nov. 24) at the MOA Arena.