Gilas Pilipinas gunner Dwight Ramos agreed with coach Tim Cone’s sentiment that he “could have done more” for Gilas Pilipinas if only he played his natural position and Scottie Thompson was there to man the point at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Ramos, who had to play the point guard position in the Olympic qualifiers, said Friday at the sidelines of a Lawson Philippines and Levanga Hokkaido-hosted fan event at the One Ayala Mall that Thompson’s absence was pivotal for the team’s campaign.

“I agree [with coach Tim Cone], it’s hard if you had to do a lot of things on the court but if we had Scottie. Scottie would’ve helped with some of the things because he can do a lot of things, I guess it just lets me do more in certain areas. If Scottie was there, I definitely could’ve done more,” said the 25-year-old standout.

The Levanga Hokkaido star said he still feels more comfortable as a shooting guard, and also acknowledged Meralco star Chris Newsome’s efforts to step up.

“To be honest, Chris Newsome was more of the point guard and I was more on the off guard. I only played a couple of minutes in the game. Chris really did the whole thing but Coach Tab [Baldwin] has always tried to prepare me for that. I still feel more comfortable playing more as like a shooting guard, but, yeah.”

Recently, in an interview with reporters at the PBA Draft Combine, Cone said Thompson was a big loss for Gilas and Ramos could have played his full potential.

“I think we could have gotten more out of Dwight if he had been in a natural position,” said the national team tactician.

“But having to play out of position, I mean, he was still great. He’s always great. But being on a scale of one to ten, he’s a ten in maybe his comfortable position, maybe an eight in an uncomfortable position. So that’s kind of what we were forced to do with him [Dwight Ramos], Cone went on.

Ramos asserted that they could have won entirely at the tournament and advanced to the Paris Games.

“It felt like we should have won the whole tournament so it still felt like a disappointment for us,” he said. “It’s a big thing, something to look back on, for sure, but I hope there was more to it.”

Still, the future is bright for Gilas, Ramos asserts

More than the what ifs, Ramos asserted that still, the future is “super bright” for Gilas Pilipinas after reaching the Olympic qualifier semifinals despite short preparations.

“[Gilas’ future is] super bright. We still have a bunch of years until the World Cup, and we really only practiced for four days before we left. So four days of practice, we still made it to the semis,” Ramos said.

The former Ateneo Blue Eagle did not forget to thank Filipino fans who supported them on-site in Latvia and in the country — remember, their games were played at midnight, Manila time due to difference of time zones.

READ: Dwight Ramos ‘excited to come back’ to Levanga Hokkaido following extension

READ: Dwight Ramos optimistic of Tim Cone’s long-term vision with Gilas

“I will just say thank you, even we’re playing far away, there’s a lot of Filipinos in the stadium, and then of course everybody here is staying up, watching late at night so it just gets you extra motivation when we play.”

RELATED VIDEO: