Has Captain Hook Relinquished His Alpha Status

Saludo si Captain Hook sa inyo

Following last night's 105-104 defeat at the hands of Willie Miller and the rest of the GlobalPort Batang Pier, there was one standout statistic featured on the Meralco Bolts' box score. It featured no less than "franchise player" Mac Cardona and under the label "Points" where it would usually read 18 to 24, it read 2.

TWO points.

We're not talking about on and off guys like Miller or Barako Bull Energy Cola's Danny Seigle or even  San Mig Coffee Mixers' PJ Simon here. We're talking about Cardona-- a guy who would take (and has taken) over 30 shots if he could to break the double digit scoring barrier. Of course, had the Bolts won we wouldn't even be talking about it since we could easily dismiss it as an "off night" for Cardona. Fortunately for the Bolts, there were guards Sol Mercado and recently acquired Ronjay Buenafe dropping 30-points EACH to make it a game.

But now that Mercado looks more and more like the lead guy, the "Alpha Dog" so to speak, is it finally safe to say that Cardona has willingly ceded his lofty standing in the Bolts' pecking order?

Granted, Coach Ryan Gregorio's borrowing of the "Dribble Drive" offense allows Mercado more time with the ball being the better dribbler and passer (being the combo guard that he is) so that greatly helps his cause. But it's also due to Cardona's lack of mobility when it comes to dribbling the basketball.

As great (and unorthodox) a scorer as Cardona is, he's just slow to set up shop on the floor and needs long periods of time to create. Though his methods have worked in the past (earning him a Finals MVP even), it's not something that would thrive under the DDO. To be fair, Cardona has been putting in work, scoring almost 12 points on 10 shots a game and even averaging close to six boards (which isn't the norm for natural born "scorers." Then again, guess guys like Cardona would do anything to have a hold of the basketball in a 48-minute game even if it calls for battling bigs and rebounding lol).

Also, with the acquisition of a long-range bomber like Buenafe and even Sunday Salvacion, the need for Cardona to produce is no longer there. Of course, everything changes when Buenafe and Salvacion start shooting blanks-- expect Coach Ryan to go back to the swaggerlicious Captain Hook.

Love him or hate him, you'd hate to see a competitor such as Cardona looking as though he's transitioning to the end of his career (from star to role player). Of course, we're still only three-four games in the young season, and Cardona could either join the Gary David System or (and this has been rumored to be the case) be traded elsewhere (say Air21) and be The MAN once more.