PBA IMAGES
Rain or Shine had to find a replacement import quickly after Wayne Chism got hurt.
And though new reinforcement Antoine Wright failed to impress in his PBA debut, Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao is far from giving up on the former NBA veteran yet.
“He’s legit in the NBA. He was picked very early in the first round in the draft,” noted Guiao.
“The only major problem was he’s not in game shape and he does not have his legs. His last official game was seven months ago so that means he hasn’t played in a competitive tournament since then. He’s been keeping himself in shape by playing pickup games but that’s not enough.”
READ: Jeffers leads Ginebra over Rain or Shine for 1st win
The 32-year-old Wright, who was picked 15th by the then New Jersey Nets in the 2005 NBA Draft and had short stints with the Dallas Mavericks, Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings, only had 16 points and eight rebounds in a 103-92 loss to Ginebra on Sunday in his first game with Rain or Shine.
READ: ‘Rusty’ ROS import vows to be better next game
“Understandably, we have a new import. This is the first time he played with our team. He just stepped out of the airplane early Sunday morning, so hasn’t had any sleep,” Guiao said. “We need to get this guy in game shape and have him adapt to our system.”
Guiao thinks Wright, though shorter than most imports, has the tools to compete against his counterparts.
“He’s more of a wingman, but I think he’s still going to be useful,” he said. “If the other teams will have him guarded by their bigs, he has the quickness to beat them. He’s not a small guy also so when gets his conditioning going he can defend big imports. We haven’t seen his optimum potential with our team. In one or two more games, we can make another assessment.”
For now, Guiao is confident Wright will be able to show what he can do in the coming games.
“I think it’s promising. If we can get a few days of him to practice, to know his teammates and the system, we’ll get better.”