From the feedback he received, Rain or Shine mentor Caloy Garcia got almost the same assessment from his coaching staff following the return to practice session of the PBA Wednesday.
“Mga hindi raw maka-shoot mga players,” said Garcia in jest in a phone interview with Manila Bulletin.
“Nasa kundisyon naman pero kasi puro pagbubuhat ng weights ang ginawa, conditioning, and mostly walang shooting drills kaya ganun. Kumbaga nanibago din halos lahat.”
Garcia, however, expects his players to regain their shooting form, and eventually their game shape in the hopes of resuming the Philippine Cup, which opened March 8 but was called off because of the coronavirus outbreak.
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With the exception of two-time Most Valuable Player James Yap and Kris Rosales, the Elasto Painters resumed with 15 players divided into four groups that had one and a half hour practice sessions each.
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The first two groups will take the Reyes gym in Mandaluyong every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while the schedule for the third and fourth groups are Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for the next two weeks.
The first group starts at 8 a.m. and is made up of Jewel Ponferrada, Sidney Onwubere and Norbert Torres while the second group of Gabe Norwood, Rey Nambatac, Jayvee Mocon and rookie Adrian Wong begins at 9:30 a.m.
The third group of Beau Belga, Mark Borboran and rookie Prince Rivero starts at 8 in the morning, followed by the 9:30 a.m. group of rookies Clint Doliguez and Vince Tolentino with Ryan Araña.
Yap is with the first group while Rosales is with the fourth group.
Yap has already booked a Sept. 2 flight back to Manila from Italy, while Garcia said Rosales is expected to return the a few days later as he is still trying to get a flight from the US.
“I hope we’ll be complete by September, with James and Kris Rosales joining the team,” Garcia said. “We have two groups with three players each, so dun sila mapapasama para mag-training.”
“The goal here with the small group practice is for the players to regain their strength, running… well of course kasama na yung shooting dun. But yung ngang game shape, kapag nakapag five-on-five na.”