Painters trying to overcome problems with consistency, ceiling

FINISHES

ALL-FILIPINO: 8th

COMMISSIONER’S: 6th

GOVERNORS’: 7th

HEAD COACH: Caloy Garcia

NOTABLE ADDITION/S: Rey Nambatac

MANILA, Philippines — Rain or Shine will have to make do with what they have. For now.

Dealing with multiple voids going into the 43rd PBA season, Elasto Painters head coach Caloy Garcia singled out their lack of ceiling.

“Size — it’s a problem,” he said. “As you can see from the tune-ups, Beau (Belga) and Jewel (Ponferrada) are our only big men. But we are hoping when Raymond (Almazan) comes back, Jay (Washington) is healthy — I think we can [make up] for the size.”

“We just have to find ways to gain an advantage against [big] teams,” Garcia noted.

Rain or Shine is clearly drawing lessons from their conquest in the previous season’s All-Filipino conference where they fell short against the twice-to-beat San Miguel Beer in the quarterfinals.

But with a refreshed Almazan in their fold, Garcia and the Elasto Painters could easily give many teams a run for their money. They can also lean on the one-two punch backcourt of Maverick Ahanmisi and Jericho Cruz, the veteran savvy of Gabe Norwood, James Yap and Chris Tiu, and the youth of national team cadet Mike Tolomia and prized rookie Rey Nambatac.

“We just have to make sure na pagbalik ng iba, mabilis yung jelling nila,” Garcia noted. "And we’re running some new plays. We’re also expecting na sina James, Jay — when they come back, they understand what we want.”

The longtime Painters head coach also pointed out the need to become consistent. With their team only being able to finish as high as sixth place in last year’s standings (Commissioner’s Cup), they will have to really work on their constant showing to reach new heights.

"We have to be consistent. Were trying to figure out what’s a good five (players) for us inside the court,” Garcia said. "At the same time, we remind our players that we don’t want to adjust to the other team, we want them to adjust to us.”

Rain or Shine’s first assignment in the All-Filipino are the TNT KaTropa at the Cuneta Astrodome on December 22.