THE first two games of Rain or Shine in the PBA 50th Season Commissioner’s Cup will see it go against some of the tallest imports that will play in the league.
The Elasto Painters will open the midseason conference against the Macau Black Bears on March 14 at the Ynares Center-Montalban where the guest team is set to parade Sam Deguara, who at 7-foot-6 will go down as the tallest player to ever play in the 50-year old pro league.
READ TNT hiring Bol Bol 'like bringing machine gun to knife fight,' says Guiao
It will then be followed by the match-up against TNT on March 20 at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum where 7-foot-3 Bol Bol will be making his PBA debut.
“Problema talaga ‘yan,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao when asked how his team, which has one of the smallest frontcourts in the league, will try to neutralize the tall imports such as Deguara and Bol.
“I think we will only know how we can look for a scheme to siguro not to totally neutralize them but make them a little bit less effective when we see them play mismo. What we can do now is rely on the videos and past tapes nila, past performances. But iba pa rin ‘yung mag-adapt sila sa style ng PBA,” Guiao said.
“We will see how they will adapt. We will see if they have any weaknesses kung may weakness sila. We will try to do something to counter their size. Ang nakakatakot baka wala silang weakness,” Guiao added.
With Bol's NBA resume, Guiao sees the son of the late Manute Bol as the toughest match-up among the PBA imports for the Commissioner’s Cup. The 7-foot-3 Bol played six years in the NBA from 2019 to 2025 before signing with TNT.
“Si Bol Bol, napapanood ko naman sa NBA, napapanood ko naman highlights niya. I think he will be a problem among all the imports. Ang pinakamalaking concern ko si Bol Bol. Wala pa kaming nakikitang paraan para mapigilan siya.”
“He can own the paint, offense and defense. He is a human cheat code actually,” Guiao said.
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