Rain or Shine’s (RoS) pummeling at the hands of defending champion San Miguel Beer in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup semifinals has exposed a glaring weakness it needs to address heading into the next season.

Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao will be on the lookout for a big man in the next PBA draft after swallowing the bitter pill of being swept by the Beermen led by center June Mar Fajardo in the best-of-seven series.

Rain or Shine had a hard time matching up against the 6-foot-10 San Miguel slotman in its first semis appearance in five years.

“That’s the premium in the Draft, getting a big man,” Guiao said after the Elasto Painters wasted a 19-point lead and crumbled in a 100-107 loss in Game 4 last Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

With a couple of first round picks, Guiao will definitely try to snare an additional piece to fortify Rain or Shine’s frontline to help veteran Beau Belga and up-and-coming center Keith Datu.

Both found it difficult to contain Fajardo, who easily plowed his way over an undersized Belga while overwhelming an inexperienced Datu during the series.

The seven-time Most Valuable Player averaged a double-double of 18.2 points and 13.7 rebounds with 4.5 assists and 2.5 blocks in the semis series.

“If you want to get the championship or win a championship, when you look at what constitutes San Miguel team, you should have someone that can match June Mar,” Guiao said.

‘That’s the premium in the Draft, getting a big man.’

Fajardo is a matchup nightmare as proven by the Elasto Painters in the semis.

The Cebuano native was the catalyst in the Beermen’s second half surge in the first two games.

Rain or Shine managed to limit Fajardo to just 11 points in Game 3 and held him scoreless in the fourth canto only to get punished by other San Miguel stars in CJ Perez, Don Trollano, Marcio Lassiter, Terrence Romeo and Jericho Cruz.

In the series clincher, Fajardo’s steady presence fueled the come-from-behind win albeit scoring only two points in the fourth period.

“It’s hard to find a physical specimen to match up against him,” Guiao said.

“If they dump the ball to him, they now have a 70 percent efficiency rate forcing you to commit a double team. If you double, you’ll have to deal with the other players around him. It’s really picking your poison.”

With the constant threat of crossing paths with San Miguel on the road to the crown, Guiao is prioritizing getting a big man in the July draft.

He also underscores the importance of the lessons his youth-laden team learned in the all-Filipino conference.

“We learned a lot in this series. We will come back next conference as a better team,” he said.

“We know the things that we need to work on. We know our strengths. In the offseason, we will try to improve on those aspects as we aim to build a contender team.”