Faulty wiring

Meralco needs to let the kids play
(Photo credit to the owner)

Please excuse the above shameless pun of a title, but that is probably the best way to describe what is happening to the now 0 wins and 4 losses Meralco Bolts in the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup.

After quite an impressive showing last season, the Bolts were supposed to move up this year thanks to the acquisition of point guard Jimmy Alapag (doesn’t get better than this guy, IMHO), big man Rabeh Al Hussaini and rookies Chris Newsome and Baser Amer to name a few. Sure, they lost an energy wing guy in Sean Anthony, but overall the talent level was supposed to have gone up—on paper at least.

They were SUPPOSED do a lot of positive things but so far, all we have seen is a lot of sloppy play and inconsistency from Coach Norman Black’s team.
Last season, the Bolts made waves (to us at least) as a sound, position-less basketball unit that could guard guys 1 to 5. They found ways to win outside of just relying on aging ace scorer Gary David by having Anthony, Jared Dillinger and Reynel Hugnatan cover so much ground on both ends of the floor.

This year, with the influx of new, traditional talent who are penciled into their respective positions, the Bolts unfortunately appear to be quite lost. Alapag and Amer are the point guards, David and Ronjay Buenafe are the designated scorers, Dillinger and Newsome are the freelancers, Cliff Hodge, Kelly Nabong and Hugnatan are the athletic fours while Al Hussaini is the man tasked to protect the paint and provide low post offense.

So why isn’t it working?

We have noticed a few things, starting with Al Hussaini who has impressed (22mpg 11ppg 4rpg) but not dominated in the way that the Bolts need him to. He’s not controlling the paint on the defensive end which makes the Bolts even more of a donut team from last season since guys were covering for one another as compared to this season wherein they are banking on Al Hussaini to take care of the job by himself, Junemar Fajardo-style.  His chief back-up, Nabong, is pretty much a slim Alex Crisano which means that though he’ll go all out, there is a huge possibility of him either fouling out or making bone-headed plays.

Then there is Cliff Hodge (35mpg 13ppg  11rpg 2apg) who is being primed to be the team’s ace player if we are looking at the amount of minutes he is being given. Though he puts up the numbers because of his energy and hustle, he STILL looks lost out there like a "wild child" of sorts.

As for guard play, the lack of defense was expected and this is what puts a lot of pressure on the bigs. Having Alapag, fresh out of retirement, play a major role (27mpg 6ppg 1rpg 7apg) means that while he is running the offense, opposing guards are able to score on him at will since he is no longer the defender that he once was. His partner, David is faring just as well save for some scoring surges here and there. But yeah, you probably get what we are trying to point out here: old men can’t play defense.

Why their supposed “understudies” Amer (16mpg 4ppg 2rpg 1 apg) and Newsome (27.5mpg 11ppg 5rpg 4apg) aren’t playing more minutes is beyond us.

Which brings us to the one player who we feel could and should pull this team together: Jared Dillinger.
Though the man once hailed as the “Daredevil” has continued to look like a shell of his former self following his “accident” years back, Dillinger is still much better than most at his position. He can unite both the veterans and the young guys, because his game allows him to either play in the half court or run out on the break.  They don’t really need him to be the alpha, because he’s pretty much one of the few “Jack of all trades” in the PBA that can cover for his teammates. Unfortunately, we haven’t really seen Dillinger take that role of “leader” and maybe it doesn’t look like he’ll start now with Alapag in tow.

As a team, maybe the Bolts should consider a “changing of the guards.” They are playing at a slow pace right now which kind of offsets their young core while being half-assed in committing to Al Hussaini in the paint (or maybe they are bringing him along slowly, since he is coming off a year-long hiatus).  We wouldn’t mind seeing this team running a bit more. If Hussaini doesn’t want to rebound, then let Hodge have that role. Let Amer take control of the team with Alapag in his ear but not all over him. Let Newsome take over and use David in flashes, paired with the athletic guard or even with Dillinger to balance the shooting. Always play Alapag with Newsome, to help cover for him on defense.

Amer, Newsome, Dillinger, Hodge and Hussaini. These kids are the future of Meralco Bolts basketball.

And that kid Joseph Sedurifa is hella nice.