15 October 2015

Meralco Scored Big with Newsome

Chris Newsome
After finishing at the top four in last season’s Commissioner’s Cup, the Meralco Bolts made a series of moves in the offseason to ensure that their productive year with coach Norman Black was not a fluke.

The Bolts jettisoned Mike Cortez and James Sena for veteran Jimmy Alapag, signed free agents Justin Chua and Ronjay Buenafe, resigned Rabeh Al-Hussaini and drafted Chris Newsome and Baser Amer.

While Gary David may still be the number one option on offense, observers believed that Newsome is going to make a very big difference for the team.

Aside from welcoming back erstwhile prodigal son Al-Hussaini, Newsome is undoubtedly the Bolts’ biggest acquisition. His penetration, his shooting capability, his point guard savvy, he can really pass the basketball, his energy about the game of basketball something.

Out of all of Bolts new additions, Alapag and Al-Hussaini are the better players, but Newsome will be a tremendous help to the Bolts offense which was heavily reliant on David and Cliff Hodge. He averaged a team-high 14.3 points on top of 8.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in a Swiss Army knife-role for the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the UAAP.

Although Newsome’s performance was in a college tournament, he should be able to play like this on a semi-consistent basis for the Bolts during the regular season. Newsome may not actually become Bolt’s "biggest acquisition" but he will definitely be a key player off the bench for Meralco.

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