Even though they're still missing a few players from their lineup, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters are working hard in their preparation for the upcoming season. Part of their preparations was a tune-up game against Gilas Pilipinas where the undermanned Painters lost.
However, head coach Caloy Garcia was not looking at the result but what they could learn from the game.
"I told our players that it's also a good learning process for us specially in the third quarter (when) Gilas played so well and we played poorly. We can look at that and see what we can fix," Garcia added.
Garcia noted that they are still missing seven players from their usual rotation saying: "We're still far from where we want to be but the players who are here are working very hard and that's all I could ask for."
The Painters featured a couple of new faces in the game including former Letran Knight Rey Nambatac, who was the team's seventh pick overall in the 2017 PBA Rookie Draft. They also tested JK Casino of the CEU Scorpions, who was drafted by Phoenix in the fourth round but was left unsigned.
Sponsored content:
"We're still looking if we can put JK in kasi matalinong point guard but we're still waiting also for Chris (Tiu) to come back pero habang wala siya, tinitignan muna namin si JK.", Garcia said.
Garcia added that the tuneup game was also important to ROS as it's a chance to test the mettle of the younger players.
"Because guys like Chris and Maverick (Ahanmisi) are not here, sina Jerramy King and Ed Daquioag get to play longer and that's good for us because at least they get to develop their good habits."
The coach added that they are retaining the new-look offense they debuted last season while also adding more options into their system.
"We're sticking with our two options on the break: the post trailer and the dribble-drive," Garcia explained. "In the offseason, we want to focus now on our set plays. We're introducing new sets to the players and more ball movement. Nangangapa pa sila but when we ran it right, it looked good so the players are buying into it."
Sponsored content:
Last season, the Painters did not get past the quarterfinal stage with only one playoff victory in the entire year. Garcia is hoping that the hard work they are currently putting in gives them a shot at making it back to the semifinals where ROS used to be a mainstay. He's also hoping for some good luck.
"We want to do better than we did last year. Last Philippine Cup, we went 5-1 with Raymond then after he got injured we couldn't win a game," Garcia closed. "We just want to be healthy and we're looking to make it firstly to the semis."
