By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao believes his team is a piece or two away from becoming a true contender in the PBA, noting that the Elasto Painters already have the personnel he believes could form the nucleus of the squad.
Despite getting boot out of the semifinals of the 2024 PBA Philippine Cup after a 0-4 sweep loss to the hands of San Miguel, Guiao is seeing a bright future for ROS especially with all of the experience they earned throughout the playoff run
“I think we have six or seven who can really be the core of this team at mga bata so kailangan na lang kami magbuild ng dalawa o tatlong pyesa around those core na tingin namin mag complement sa kanila,” said fiery mentor.
“Mabilis nga yung improvement ng process namin i think that’s the takeaway maexperience nila yung ganito experience nila as a young team what it takes to beat San Miguel,” he added.
Clearly the underdogs in the series, Guiao liked how his young guns in Leonard Santillan, Andrei Caracut, Adrian Nocum, Gian Mamuyac, Keith Datu, Anton Asistio and Jhonard Clarito stood their ground against the playoff-tested SMB.
Those were also the personnel who he believed can form the core of his team – a group he can further improve with his two first round picks in the Season 49 PBA draft.
According to Guiao, its frontline which heavily relied on veteran Beau Belga, will be a point of improvement for the team heading into the draft.
Moreover, Guiao also emphasized the need for someone who can hold the fort against June Mar Fajardo who was the focal point of the SMB team as he believes that any team that wants to win a championship must go through and beat Fajardo and the Beermen
“Kung may malaki yun naman talaga yung premium sa draft eh,” said Guiao.
“If you want to win a championship sa pagconsitute ng SMB laging may June Mar eh kailangan makahanap ka ng katapat ni June Mar, ang hirap kasi maghanap ng physical specimen na pangtapat sa kanya,” he added.
Either way, Guiao vowed ROS would be a better team next season.
“Marami kaming natutunan dito sa sa series. As I said, we’ll come back stronger next conference, as a better team. Alam namin kung ano yung mga kulang pa namin at alam din namin kung ano yung strengths namin,” said Guiao
“The offseason, we will try to improve on those aspects to be a contender team.”
