Chris Bosh or Bust

Matt Aaron is bringing his talents to ‘Inconclusive Evidence.’

            The Miami Heat suffered their fifth loss of the season tonight at the hands of Rudy Gay and the Memphis Grizzles. That must mean they are going 62-7 the rest of the way, because experts like Jeff Van Gundy told me this team is winning 70. In all fairness to the future greatest team of all time, Dwyane Wade, who is not feeling so hot, did not play and it did take a game winning shot from Gay to defeat the Heat. That does not excuse the fact that this team is only 2-5 against teams with a winning record early in this season. Two questions came to my mind last summer when Pat Riley was attempting to put an Olympic team together. Since when is Chris Bosh an elite forward in this league and why are people talking like he is a top 5 player in the league or even a top 10 player? Before recent solid performances from Bosh, a lot of people were jumping on my “Everybody Hates Chris” bandwagon and calling the middle component of ‘LCD’ vastly overrated. Bosh is not physical enough to play the 4, yet he is not quick enough to be a 3. He constantly gets exposed on defense and he gets terrorized by bigger forwards (Mr. Dwight Howard says hello). Statistically, he looks like the cream of the crop averaging 20.1 points and 9.4 rebounds a game in his career. Those numbers do not tell the entire story as he played in a pathetic division while in Toronto. Before the Boston Tea Party assembled in Celtics country, the winner of the Atlantic would often finish under .500. Jason Whitlock, writer for foxsports.com described another reason for Bosh’s statistical consistency while in Canada…

         “Is Bosh a homeless man’s Dirk Nowitzki, a perimeter big man who put up inflated scoring and rebounding numbers because when visiting NBA players cross the Canadian border they put far more effort into acquiring condoms, loonies and a strip-club champagne room than their on-court assignments?”

Let’s not forget that Bosh only carried his team to the playoffs twice while a Raptor. I understand that many of you just read that statement and rebutted with, “well Matt Aaron of Inconclusive Evidence, Chris never had help around him.” This is a factual statement, but he played in the East where teams under .500 made it to the show and he played in the East where one player could carry a team to the playoffs (Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson).

With LeBron playing the role of a point 3, Heat’s size will cost them down the stretch, unless it is addressed. Big Z is a 7 foot shooter, Udonis Haslem does not have a healthy, dominate Shaq playing next to him this time around and Joel Anthony is not long enough. Bosh struggles in the post and right around the cylinder which is problematic for a power forward. His extended range from near the arc will not play a huge factor in LeBron’s or Wade’s game, because those two are getting to the rim with big men under the bucket or not.

Would Pat Riley have been better off going after more role players that a team needs in order to win the Larry O’Brien trophy? Even with the South Beach discount, Bosh cost the Heat a scorching contract on their books. Was it worth it for somebody who I do not believe is top 5 at his own position? (I’d even take LaMarcus Aldridge over Bosh). Time will tell, but one thing is for sure, Chris Bosh has box score syndrome, a disease that makes people think he had a heroic game simply by looking at his numbers. When looking deeper into his game, he is not a championship big man and Pau Gasol probably grins at a Chris Bosh challenge come June.

But then again, this is the same Chris Bosh who made a mock political video, begging people to vote him into the All-Star game.