A series of unfortunate incidents involving its imports led to Rain or Shine’s early elimination in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup.

But the Elasto Painters want to move forward at the soonest possible time and focus their attention on how to come up with a better showing next time.

Head coach Yeng Guiao told a small group of sportswriters that they want the players to stay in shape even though the team is already out of the running in the season-ending tournament.

“We will practice early,” Guiao said. “We might take a two-week break and we’ll start practicing by Holy Week, although we will give the Thursday to Sunday the days to the players so they can be with their families.”

The Elasto Painters ended their campaign with a 2-9 win-loss record as they had trouble bringing in the right import.

Rain or Shine started the conference with former NorthPort reinforcement Michael Qualls as its reinforcement, but he failed to duplicate his previous successful stint with the Batang Pier four years ago in his PBA return.

He was replaced by Greg Smith, who gave the squad one win in three games.

In its last-ditch effort to revive its bid, the team imported Jordan Tolbert but he exceeded the 6-6 height limit and the team fielded an all-local talent the rest of the way and managed to win one game.
While the campaign was disappointing, Guiao would rather forget about this experience and look into the future.

A planned pocket tournament in May after the Southeast Asian Games is on Guioa’s sights, a stint that will help the Elasto Painters rebuild.

“We just want to start early just to keep themselves in shape and not losing their conditioning,” Guiao said. “At the same time, they can recover. We’re just trying to balance the recovery time and not losing their conditioning.”

“From our information, there’s plan for the PBA to hold a pocket tournament and we need to prepare for that, so if it’s going to be held in May, it’s only logical that we start practicing by April.”