5 Reasons Why Chris Bosh Deserves a Bigger Role in the Miami Heat's Offense

Despite the disappointing and anti-climactic finish, the 2010-11 Miami Heat season was a success.

They proved that not only could LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh play together, but that they could also overcome rough stretches, injuries and the constant criticism that they had to endure throughout their first campaign together. With the big splash made during the 2010 offseason, the Heat were put under a microscope and were analyzed every which way from every type of media outlet or any blogger that wandered their way onto B/R and had an opinion.

At 58-24 and the defending champions of the Eastern Conference, the Heat impressed but also could have done a lot more to improve.

They were easily capable of winning 60-plus if not for the rough start and were also well and capable of winning the title if they had made some adjustments for the finals. It was a quality test run with this latest installment of a Big Three experiment, as the team did just about everything right in the final months of the season up until the last two weeks.

James and Wade earned most of the attention and handled most of the responsibility on offense as they averaged 26 and 25 points respectively. The only problem was that Chris Bosh wasn't getting nearly enough looks with the two slashers taking up most of the possessions. Bosh was placed as a third option on the Heat and he only averaged 18 points per in his first season with the team.

Next season could be an even more interesting one if the team does the right thing by attempting to get Bosh more involved on the offense. He's only a year removed from averaging 24 points per and is still completely capable of doing so again if given the opportunity.

Here are five benefits the Heat would receive by giving Bosh some more looks.

Low-Post Presence

For a team to be successful and before they can even contend for a championship, they'll need at least one quality low-post presence. Take a look at any champion over the past two decades and you'll see that each team has had a power forward or center that did their fair share of the work and was either a first or second scoring option.

Dirk Nowitzki with Dallas, Kevin Garnett with Boston, Tim Duncan with San Antonio and Shaquille O'Neal with Miami and the Los Angeles Lakers are all prime examples of dominant low-post players that willed their team to victory as either a scoring or defensive option. These players take the highest-percentage shots, rebound the most and usually take up most of the attention from opposing defenses since the chances are higher that the post player will make the shot from near the basket.

This was a key aspect that the Miami Heat from last season lacked heavily. Aside from Chris Bosh, they had not one single consistent low-post threat. Udonis Haslem spends most of his time from the mid-range, Juwan Howard can barely jump and none of the centers could contribute in any way, shape or form on the offensive end unless they were wide open and even that was struggle at times.

When it comes down to finding a consistent scoring threat in the middle, the team's only option is Bosh. He can sometimes stray away from the paint and spend the majority of the game playing passive and taking his shots from the mid-range, but he's much more effective when he's getting into the paint and forcing frontcourts to react rather than just waiting for him to take his shot.

This is going to have to work two ways if this aspect of the Heat's offense is going to work because not only do the Heat actually have to look for Bosh in the post, but he also has to make a conscious effort to spend time in the post and attack the paint at all costs. The Heat need their low-post presence and the only player on the roster that can fit the bill is Chris Bosh and no one else.

Unless you manage to come across a time machine so we can get the Juwan Howard of 10 years ago.

Consistency from the Mid-Range

When you lose out on your top perimeter threat and then have to rely on a myriad of inconsistent shooters, the chances are very likely that your offense isn't going to run as smoothly as you originally anticipated.

The Miami Heat lost Mike Miller prior to the start of the season and they never truly got him back even though he returned after two months of sitting out. He had injuries to his fingers on his shooting hand and that's a devastating injury to a player who relies heavily on shooting and has developed a stroke that they relied on for over a decade, as in the case of Miller.

Besides Miller, the Heat only have two other consistent mid-range shooters in Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem. Both players are solid, reliable and can hit big shots when called upon, but Bosh holds the advantage over Haslem because of his ability to create his own shot. He always carries the threat of using his speed to drive past the big men that defend him and it forces them into a quandary, as they either have to give him room to take his shot or load up on and risk giving up a possible drive.

That's what makes Bosh such a lethal power forward when he's performing at the top of his game and being relied on as a first option. He carries so many offensive weapons that it makes defenders hesitant as to how to approach the way they play defense on Bosh.

His mid-range game is an extremely consistent part of his game and it's one that he relies on for the majority of his game. While we would like to see Bosh force the issue of driving to the rim more, there is still nothing wrong with him still taking shots and spreading out the defense. If he's consistently making his jumpers, it will eventually force defenders to spread out due to the threat of shots being hit from 15-20 feet, which would allow more room for Bosh's teammates to work with on offense when they also want to score.

Make Life Easier for LeBron and Dwyane

One of the main problems of the Heat's recent finals loss was the team's inability to penetrate the Dallas Mavericks zone defense.

The Mavs used the gimmicky defense to stifle the Heat as they focused their entire defense on the team's two highest-scoring players in Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. They're both prolific drivers and the zone defense is used to prevent players like Wade and James from entering the paint at will. It usually requires two guards playing up at the top preventing the players at the top of the perimeter from entering within 20 feet and then executing their drive.

NBA teams don't use zone defenses because of how shooters usually thrive against it. With such a stress on driving, the team using the zone defense won't be able to guard every shooting threat on the perimeter.

The coaching staff failed to realize that's what zone defenses do and instead of allowing shooters like Chris Bosh to take control of the game, they allowed Wade and James to continue to dominate the ball. The Heat lost their series because of how reliant they had become on just those two players rather than allowing Bosh to take over much the same way Wade and James do at times.

One of the most ludicrous performances the coaching staff put on last year was their inability to realize just how quality of a player Bosh is. He might have cut the braids off, but nothing changed. He's the same player that averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds per game the year before with Toronto, just in a hotter climate and with better teammates. He might have been the third-best player on the team, but it didn't mean that he should be treated as if he was the third-best player.

So next year when the Heat march out with Wade, James and Bosh, hopefully the coaching staff realizes what I and hopefully many others have seen by allowing Bosh to take control of the game from time to time. Driving is an entertaining part of the game and we all love the magic that Wade and James perform, but there's nothing wrong with a few Bosh post-ups, mid-range jumpers and lay-ins either.

Easier Scoring Opportunities To Go Around

When Chris Bosh and LeBron James agreed to sign with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, we knew two guaranteed aspects that we would see from the team's offense.

One was that we were in for a very entertaining season since Wade and James are the two best slashers in the league as well as being notorious for the way they finish at the rim. The other was that anyone not named Dwyane, LeBron or Chris would be witness to some of the easiest scoring opportunities that they had ever received as NBA players.

With so much attention being drawn to Wade and James driving and Bosh's mid-range game, there wasn't much an opposing defense could do. They would either risk having to have their players individually guard the Big Three or be forced to double-team as a means to just get the ball out of their hands. If it came down to that, though, whichever player that was being double-teamed would be able to find an open teammate.

This worked at times, but the shooters were so inconsistent and the centers were so abysmal in the low post that they hardly made an impact in most games.

Since LeBron and Dwyane spent most of the season carrying the scoring load and attracting defenses, why not let Chris take some of the scoring load and attempt to average upwards of 20 per game? He averaged 18 per last season, despite solely being recognized as a third option, and most likely still has the capability of scoring at a prolific rate again.

Bosh is actually one of the most multidimensional offensive threats on the team as well. LeBron can hit the three from time to time and Dwyane can hit from the mid-range on occasion, but they don't have nearly as consistent a shot as Bosh does from upwards of 20 feet out. Bosh can consistently shoot as well as drive and that could bring a lot more attention from the defense than what we expect.

If Bosh is given more looks, defenses will load up on him more which would result in more open looks for teammates and more easy shots along the perimeter.

Another Prolific Threat

Prior to the start of the 2010-11 season, we realized that not all could possibly be right with this new Miami Heat team.

We knew what they could be capable of since they did have three of the best players in the NBA and a few key role players that could help out as well, but we also knew the consequences and the failures that could have arisen in a worst-case scenario situation. Any player could have gotten injured and we would have left the team a lot more vulnerable or even a teammate could've become disgruntled by not being a first option.

The consensus view, though, was that there just weren't enough touches to go around on offense. These were three players from three different teams that were all first options for the first seven years of their careers. You become accustomed to a specific role you play in the NBA and giving up being a first option is one of the last things any elite player wants to do.

These three knew and were willing to take that risk and it proved to be a success at the end of the day, even with the disappointing NBA Finals loss.

For the most part, it was Wade and James doing every thing on offense with Bosh being the one to take a backseat. The two slashers still nearly averaged the same amount of points at 26 and 25 points per, with Bosh only contributing 18 points per while also taking fewer shots, getting fewer looks and playing as if he were a third option even though he had just as impressive a season as his two new teammates the season before.

All I ask for from the Heat in regards to Chris Bosh is to make sure that they actually attempt to integrate him into the offense before they actually consider trading him. He's a prolific scorer that can score from the mid-range and in the post and deserves a lot more looks than what he received last season.

If the team can integrate Bosh into the offense and have him play a more significant role, they'll add a completely new dimension with another volatile player.