On Monday, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters will finally meet Caelan Tiongson, one of the team\u2019s two first-round picks in the recent PBA Rookie Draft.<\/p>\n
Head coach Yeng Guiao confirmed to Pinoystep.com that they will have an opportunity to talk to the 6-foot-5 Tiongson regarding his PBA plans.<\/p>\n
Guiao denied that they\u2019re having a hard time signing up Tiongson, fueling speculations that he\u2019s being put on trading block, but the Elasto Painters will finally get their chance of meeting the said player, who just wrapped up playing for Strong Group in the William Jones Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in Taiwan playing in the Jones Cup, that\u2019s why we haven\u2019t talked to him about playing for us,\u201d said Guiao. \u201cBut we have no plans of trading him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiongson retired from playing in 2019 right after his stint with the San Miguel Alab Pilipinas in the Asean Basketball League, but decided to return and joined the Taoyuan Leopards.<\/p>\n
His stint just recently in the Jones Cup will help him prepare for the coming PBA season.<\/p>\n
Tiongson was selected seventh overall by Rain or Shine in the just-concluded PBA Rookie Draft.<\/p>\n
The Elasto Painters used the No.8 pick to select Felix Lemetti, an NCAA Division 1 player, who saw action for the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.<\/p>\n
If Rain or Shine has high regard on Tiongson\u2019s capabilities of playing the small forward spot, Guiao looks forward on coaching another NCAA Division 1 player in Lemetti.<\/p>\n
This is the third time in his coaching career at Rain or Shine that Guiao is going to handle another Division 1 player after Gabe Norwood (George Mason Patriots) and Mav Ahanmisi (Minnesota Gophers).<\/p>\n
Guiao is impressed at the skill set of Tiongson and Lemetti, especially their shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Tiongson, we now have a guaranteed additional talented player and then we took a gamble at Lemetti and we know our gamble is all worth it,\u201d added Guiao. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen him up close and personal even before the Rookie Draft as he worked out with us and we were impressed, not just of his shooting skills, but he is also a two-way player. This guy can also defend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rain or Shine is confident to bring in these two rookies in the coming season.<\/p>\n
With Tiongson, the Elasto Painters will have a solid small forward who can spread the floor, something which the team lacked last season as Luis Villegas, the team\u2019s third overall pick last year, had yet to fully recover from his previous knee injury.<\/p>\n
Villegas is expected to return this coming Governors\u2019 Cup.<\/p>\n
Lemetti, on the other hand, will bring in added stability in the guard position, a spot which Rey Nambatac vacated when he got traded to Blackwater.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Lemetti coming in, we need to tweak our guard rotation a little bit, but I\u2019m sure we can divide the minutes among Andrei Caracut, Anton Asistio and Adrian Nocum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rain or Shine co-owner Raymond Yu is happy with the newcomers the team had recently signed up. Aside from signing up Lemetti, who agreed to a three-year deal with the Elasto Painters, the team had also come to terms with Francis Escandor, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, who played a pivotal role in La Salle\u2019s championship run in the UAAP last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy ako kay Lemetti and Escandor,\u201d wrote Yu in a text message. \u201cI\u2019ve seen them on videos, but when they went to the office to sign their contracts, I was surprised that they both have the size for their respective positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
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On Monday, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters will finally meet Caelan Tiongson, one of the team\u2019s two first-round picks in the recent PBA Rookie Draft. Head coach Yeng Guiao confirmed to Pinoystep.com that they will have an opportunity to talk to the 6-foot-5 Tiongson regarding his PBA plans. Guiao denied that they\u2019re having a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[203,46,42],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hoops-basketball","tag-caelan-tiongson","tag-rain-or-shine-elasto-painters","tag-yeng-guiao"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1826,"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinoystep.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}