The Takeover: Mercado Rising

Big things poppin' for the Sol Train

This writer has admittedly been a harsh critique of one Solomon Mercado-- drawing the Fil-American basketball player's ire/ attention for a quick 45 seconds or so via Twitter, but that's only because while others are lost on the tattoos, bad boy image and cat-quick crossover, we see a potential for greatness. The potential to dominate the PBA and also be mentioned in the same breath of elite combo guards this side of the globe.

Not to jump on the, well, Sol Train band wagon, but the man has been doing work so far in the Philippine Cup. His Meralco Bolts is at a cool 3-2 in the win-loss column, playing at a quicker pace after head coach Ryan Gregorio suddenly had the brilliant idea of adopting SMART Gilas' "dribble drive motion offense."

So far in a little over 36 minutes in 5 games, Mercado is number 3 in the league in points with 20.6, number 1 in assists with 6.8 and also in steals with 1.8. The scoring is an improvement given Mercado's hot-and-cold ways since entering the PBA. One night he looks like a PBA combo guard sized LeBron James on a mission, the next he looks like a tatted-up, bald Dudut Jaworski.

Because of their team's "okay" start, Mercado hasn't been turning as much heads as he should. But we've already talked about how it seems that he's already embraced, nay, taken the "Alpha Dog" role from Bolts' franchise player Mac Cardona. The offense starts and ends with Mercado (specially with point guard Chris Ross out), he sets the tone, he sets his teammates up for kickout passes which shooters Sunday Salvacion and surprise league top 10 scorer Ronjay Buenafe just love. Sadly, Cardona, being more of a one-on-one, halfcourt player (read: no jumpshot), can't get any love from the Bolts' new approach because he's just not the catch-and-shoot type.

While his erstwhile bossom-buddy Gabe Norwood has slowed down after the off-season SMART Gilas stint, Mercado is showing a vastly improved game. This is surprising because, he wasn't really relied upon to create for others but himself as the designated 6th man spark plug of the team-- at least not from what we saw. Every time he tried to kick the ball out, it would result in a turnover (and a deserved Coach Chot Reyes benching and tongue lashing).

Hopefully, this is the year that Mercado finally "gets it" and recognizes just how much of a walking mismatch he is at the guard position. Too big for Cabagnot, Tenorio and Casio. Too strong for Alapag, Lingganay, Urbiztondo and Villanueva. Really, the only guys we see giving Mercado fits are Ryan Reyes (oft injured), Jayson Castro (ditto) and maybe a Denok Miranda (if he ever gets the playing time he deserves). Other than those guys, Mercado can pretty much just run right through the competition. Literally.