Rain or Shine is close to signing National Basketball Association veteran DaJuan Summers after agreeing in principle to see action in the coming season of the Philippine Basketball Association.
Elasto Painters team governor Atty. Mamerto Mondragon told Daily Tribune that they are now finalizing the details of Summers arrival as they still have to make some adjustments after the league pushed back the league opening from 15 October to 5 November.
“Everything had to be adjusted because of the decision of the PBA to push back the schedule,” Mondragon said in a telephone conversation.
“Initially, he already agreed, but we’re sending him other flight schedules.”
“We want him to be here earlier as much as possible.”
The 6-foot-8 Summers is overflowing with international experience.
He played for three NBA teams — the Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Pelicans and the Los Angeles Clippers — before spending the remaining seasons playing in various leagues in Europe, the NBA G League, the Korean Basketball League, Japan B. League, Iranian League and Saudi Arabia.
With only some minor kinks to be ironed out, the Elasto Painters are hoping to finalize everything anytime from now.
While the Elasto Painters are also excited to have their first full season under head coach Yeng Guiao, they are also looking forward to the coming PBA Rookie Draft.
Stephen Holt, the highly-touted Filipino-American former G League guard, appears to be the most talented in the pool but the bumper crop of big men like Brandon Bates, Keith Datu, Luis Villegas and Xavier Lucero could also be one of their choices.
As the Draft gets near, teams are now taking a closer look at the top prospects in a bid to shore up their respective rosters for the coming season.
For Rain or Shine’s head of basketball of operations Caloy Garcia, Holt’s impressive resume as a veteran player who spent time playing in the G League, is simply hard to ignore with sideliners comparing him to Mikey Williams and Stanley Pringle.
“There might be some similarities to the games of Mikey Williams and Holt, but all we can rely on right now are the video highlights. We can only determine that once we see them play in the PBA,” Garcia said.
Garcia believes choices in getting big men might be a lot more difficult as this will depend on the team needs and he named Datu, Bates, Villegas, Henry Galinato and Lucero as among those being considered.
