Chris Bosh: Why He Is the NBA's Most Underrated Power Forward

Chris Bosh is the most multi-talented power forward in the NBA.

To say that is not to engage in exaggeration, or to verbally indulge based on his having an excellent year so far.

It is just the case.

The Miami Heat brass knows this fact, which is why they are insisting, in the current 2011-2012 NBA campaign, that Bosh go further in consistently exhibiting all of his skills. That is, "Chris show us all that you got every night."

Bosh’s bosses are pushing Bosh to push himself.

That coach Erik Spoelstra and executive chief Pat Riley would summon Bosh to embark on such a journey to show his abilities goes to Bosh’s underratedness. They would only ask if Bosh had the potential to succeed.

In general, basketball pundits don’t give Chris Bosh enough credit for his entire hoops repertoire, for his entire ethereal and defined basketball being.

Bosh is a perennial all-star, but somehow, is ironically still under the radar.

By comparison, NBA aficionados look at the flashiness of Blake Griffin, TV commentators gush over the relentlessness of Kevin Love and assorted analysts ogle the scoring flexibility of Dirk Nowitzki.

Yet none of the above-mentioned three players can pass like or help defend like Chris Bosh, none of them can shoot the three-point shot as well as Bosh and none of them is the team decision-maker Bosh is. 

On the other hand, Bosh can score and rebound as well as the aforementioned power forwards can.  Moreover, he can score in more ways than they can.

Any given game will feel the effects of Chris Bosh’s play in any number of different ways.

Here’s how, for example, the Miami Herald recently characterized Bosh’s play:

"

To say that Chris Bosh is merely enjoying his best stretch with the Heat would be to oversimplify the significance of his recent development….The guy is shooting 71.1 percent over his past two games and hasn’t missed a three-pointer or a free throw.…

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Further, from that same piece, Coach Spoelstra:

"

We told [Bosh], he’s a two-way player….He has to prove it. That’s one of the reasons we went after him in free agency.  It’s because he has the ability to do it on both ends….He sees everything ahead of him, and he’s a smart player. He’s able to communicate a lot of our schemes to everybody out on the court. So he’s getting better with it. The better he plays, the more responsibility he has because we become dependent on it.

"

Interesting that complimentary team dependency thing mentioned by Coach Spoelstra, given that Chris Bosh plays on a Miami squad that includes two of the three best players in professional basketball, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

But at present, the Miami Heat have no worries: Bosh is solidifying his reputation, reaching his potentiality and acting to his casting.

In the Miami scheme this year, the philosophy is movement. Set defenses—Boston, Chicago, even Dallas—made life very difficult for the Heat last year. Chris Bosh is a key factor in lubricating Miami Heat team motion.

On the fast break—which the Heat want to run at every opportunity— Spoelstra expects Bosh to pull up for the three, slash down the lane as a trailer or, if the break is slowed, orchestrate the team offense from the head of the circle, quickly. From the key, Bosh can look for cutters, open shooters in the corners or pass off and set himself up in the low blocks to receive a return pass, hopefully for a score.

It all has to be done efficiently, without turnovers. Bosh’s career turnover rate is only 2.2, so he can be trusted.

Would any other power forward in the NBA be asked to execute all that Bosh is being asked to accomplish? Very doubtful.

Blake Griffin doesn’t pass well enough and he can’t shoot the three. Nowitzki can’t orchestrate like Bosh. Kevin Love doesn’t defend like Bosh, and his offensive game is not mature enough yet. Pau Gasol is too abashed to accept Bosh-like responsibility.

Chris Bosh is the NBA’s most underrated big forward because his game goes beyond the numbers more so than any other forward of his type despite his numbers being impressive in and of themselves.

Unselfishly, Bosh, one of the newly chosen 20 USA Olympic finalists, is breaking boundaries at the power forward position. 

He’s stretching himself to unseen dimensions, just like the Miami Heat want him to.