Rain or Shine management will not meddle with coach Yeng Guiao’s decision on their two first-round picks in the upcoming rookie draft.
In a report from Spin.ph, Guiao said that one of their team owners, Raymund Yu, gave him the green light to do whatever he wants with their draft picks. Rain or Shine owns the rights to the third and fourth overall selections in the upcoming draft.
“Ang maganda rito, nung kinausap ko si Boss Raymund, sabi niya ‘yung No. 3 and 4 na draft picks, sa iyo yan. Kung ano ang gusto mong gawin diyan, puwede mong gawin,” Guiao said. “Alam naman (nila) na ang intention ay palakasin naman ang team. Hindi natin yan pang-le-leverage ng kung anuman.”
The last time Guiao had the chance to pick the third and fourth overall selections of a rookie draft was in 2021, when he was the coach of NLEX. However, the team traded the rights to the fourth pick to TNT in exchange for Don Trollano, Roi Sumang, Maurice Shaw, and a 2022 second-round pick.
NLEX selected Calvin Oftana as the third pick of the 2021 draft, but they allowed TNT to get explosive scorer Mikey Williams as the fourth pick.
“In fairness, naman nung andun ako sa NLEX, napag-usapan naman yan. Of course, merong resistance on my part,” Guiao added. “But at the end of the day, once tinanggap mo na and inaccept mo na, yun na yun. You also have to take responsibility for that.” (MJD)
