Chris Bosh, Miami Heat, Key or Liability to NBA Championship?
Dwyane Wade, Pat Riley and Miami Heat fans were thrilled to acquire superstar power forward Chris Bosh during the “Summer of LeBron.”
Unfortunately, Chris Bosh may not have been the defining third piece the Miami Heat needed to win an NBA Championship. Although Chris Bosh first signed with LeBron James, he simply may not have been the right player for Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade to recruit all along.
Chris Bosh is indeed a fantastic basketball player. He is a good rebounder, has great footwork and fantastic shooting touch for a big man. His downside, though, is that he is not a great post player.
He cannot battle with the bigs in the paint.
He is listed as a power forward/center. Unfortunately for the Heat, that center tag is not by choice.
Chris Bosh is more similar to Kevin Garnett, minus the defense prowess, of course.
The Miami Heat needs a player with Tim Duncan’s game. Duncan has a fantastic post game, great court vision to dish out the rock, and can bang in the paint for rebounds. Chris Bosh simply does not want to do that. Either that or he simply can’t, which would be far worse for Miami.
But he’ll have to if he and LeBron James want their first NBA Championship.
Chris Bosh needs to start playing bigger than he is, instead of stepping back and playing an intermediate game.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, as he showed in Cleveland, does not have what it takes to sustain that type of punishment in the paint anymore. His body simply won’t allow for it. In a seven-game playoff series, Ilgauskas cannot be counted on. Chris Bosh will.
Yet Chris Bosh won’t be able to compete with the likes of Orlando’s Dwight Howard, Boston’s Shaquille O’Neal and Kendrick Perkins or even New York’s Amar’e Stoudemire.
Bosh may average 18.2 points, 1.9 assists and 7.9 rebounds per game, but the Heat desperately need him to average closer to double-digit rebounds in April, May and perhaps June.
The Miami Heat are on an impressive 12-game win streak. They will put it on the line tonight against the Dallas Mavericks, who have the inside presence to compete with any team in this league.
This will be a major test for Chris Bosh and the Heat. If Bosh shows up in the paint tonight and can help lead the Heat to victory over one of the most dominant teams in the NBA, hope is in sight for this team in the playoffs.
If they get beaten down, the glaring weakness of Chris Bosh will be brought back to the forefront once again. He will continue to be the scapegoat throughout because everybody has seen that the Heat needs a low post presence. They already boast two of the top perimeter players in the league in Wade and James. Bosh needs to step his game up and prove that he is a premier post player who can dominate down low.
With these three on the roster, the sky is truly the limit for the Heat. Yet the sky could come crashing down quickly if one piece of this puzzle is jarred loose.
