Apostle's Creed

Batman and Robin?
No, more like Batman and Green Lantern

While 2x PBA Most Valuable Player James Yap continues to hog the limelight for the San Mig Coffee Mixers both on and off the court, this season has been about the continued rise to prominence of Yap's "sidekick," scorer Peter June Simon.

But based on what we've seen so far, Simon is anything BUT a sidekick to Yap. In the Ryan Gregorio years perhaps, but Simon has blossomed into a complete player under Gregorio's replacement, head coach Tim Cone. Cone has done a marvelous job in honing Simon's all-around offensive skills, forcing the Davao City native to play facilitator and even off the ball instead of just waiting his turn on the isolation sets.

This PBA Commissioner's Cup, Simon is averaging a cool 12 points, 3 rebounds and an assist in 31 minutes a game-- just a few short of Yap's 15, 3 and 2 numbers. While you could argue that the Mixers' are still Yap's team given the edge in statistics, it should be noted that Yap is shooting at a 40% clip on the floor as compared to Simon's impressive 45% (stats c/o pba-online.net).

While the plays usually go Yap's way, it is Simon who is rising to the occasion time and again to offer the needed spark or bailout shots. His speed, dexterity and ability to move laterally makes him a bigger offensive threat than the volume shooting Yap.

The partnership between the two is no longer similar to Cone's former wards back in his time with Alaska: PBA MVP Kenneth Duremdes and slasher Rodney Santos where you just knew who was the alpha dog and would always get the ball in the closing moments no matter what.

No, we've seen more and more games with Simon playing the alpha and Yap content with just letting his fellow Southern son have his moments. In tonight's win over the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters, Yap was having another one of his God-awful nights and just like before, Simon happily and ably stepped up to the plate, took the ball and literally ran away with it.

How far can this partnership go?

They've already won big last season, it's really a matter of both guys embracing their roles and doing more for the team. Cone's rotation has always been a short one, so these two need to learn to stay on the floor and play some honest defense. Yap's been doing some work on the rebounding end, it would be nice if Simon could keep improving on his one-on-one defense as well.