What The Meralco Bolts Could (or should) Do?

With the PBA Annual Rookie Draft less than 24 hours away, teams will use this time off to figure what direction of picks they should go and what kind of deals they’d like to do.

Despite early indications of powerhouse dominance by the SMC teams (SMB, Barangay Ginebra and Magnolia) in the coming season, the rookie market may prove to be a rich source of talents to counter the stampede. San Miguel Beer recently acquired scoring champion CJ Perez, Barangay Ginebra received Christian Standhardinger while Magnolia got Calvin Abueva all from trades.

By now, each team should have a good idea of who they want to keep, what moves they should consider next, and what they could accomplish. For the Meralco Bolts, here is a breakdown of what options are available and whether they can be expected to be active or not in trading.

Love them or hate them, the Bolts have to be the most fascinating team ahead of the draft and buyout market. After consolidating several Cinderella finishes, they could further go all-in by maximizing every last asset and exception at their disposal.

One divisive move the Bolts made was trading their perennial point man Baser Amer for Mac Bello. After having a 2018-20 seasons worthy of All-Star consideration, Amer was considered expendable with emergence of Trevis Jackson, Aaron Black and John Pinto who combine for 10.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists. Those numbers may further balloon since Amer hogged the playing time.

If the Bolts decide to explore the Draft, which is reasonable given how shallow their backcourt is, then it makes sense to wait for what is available at number 9.

Meralco’s struggles in their Finals appearances have been thoroughly dissected from their lack of experienced depth, to not having a definitive answer at center, and to Amer not playing to expectations. The addition of Bello and Noy Baclao should immediately improve things, but it's hard to see the Bolts as currently built able to keep up with the SMB, Barangay Ginebra, or Magnolia unless they can get hold of Franky Johnson or Mikey Williams from the Draft.