Instead, I will be talking about the things I have noticed throughout this young and vibrant NBA season.
Recently there has been much talk about the Heat (understatement of the year) and the cohesion between the “Big Three.” Again, as most of y’all may know, the tremendous trio (original nicknames are tough to come by) hasn’t necessarily lived up to expectations, with just D-Wade and Lebron showing up.
And yet, there have been the headlines: “How come Chris Bosh hasn’t showed up to complete the Three?” Nevertheless, I really don’t see where all the fuss is coming from.
First of all, I would like to make it known that Chris Bosh is one of the few NBA players I like.
The guy is funny and knows how to take a joke. Aanyone remember his videos for the 2008 All-Star game? He doesn’t seem to be an egomaniac and he hasn’t gotten himself into any trouble in his career.
And then there’s the other thing about his kind of okay at basketball.
He was chosen fourth overall, after the likes of Lebron, Darko (yes, that Darko) and Melo. After Vince Carter ditched the Raptors in ’04, the team relied on Bosh to lead, score and rebound.
You’d think that since he was the marquee player, the man would have accrued a serious amount of stats during his stay.
Actually, the Raptor (admit it — he totally looks like one) only averaged 20 points and 9 boards in Toronto and only made the playoffs twice, only to be evicted each time in the first round.
That he hasn’t averaged 20 and 10 with Lebron and Wade is no surprise. Superstardom split three ways naturally means fewer shots, and Wade and Lebron’s scoring averages have dipped.
We’ve seen it before with Garnett, Ray-Ray and Paul Pierce when they first joined forces on the Celtics. K.G. didn’t have to score 22 and rebound 12 a night to win. And Pierce and Allen were no longer obligated to throw up 20 shots a game for their team to have a chance at a win.
The lesson is simple: as long as they rely on each other (cliché intended) the team will win games. So it is only natural that we haven’t seen Bosh’s previous offensive stats. What counts is that he is helping the team where it needs help.
Given that the Heat have no interior presence outside of Joel Anthony’s body heat, it’s disheartening to see how timid Bosh looks on the defensive end.
Moreover, Bosh doesn’t expend as much energy offensively as he used to with the luxury of Wade and Lebron’s offensive prowess, but he needs to gobble up the boards.
His talents as a rebounder were a tad inflated in Toronto, but it’s imperative that Bosh averages more than five boards a game. The fact of the matter is that Bosh is better and much more talented than the other interior players.
Udonis Haslem, his backup, shouldn’t be getting more rebounds than him. What we need to focus on is not so much on his scoring output, but rather his effort in getting the rebounds for his team.
What I’m trying to get at is that the Heat does not need a “Big Three” when they already have Lebron and Wade. What they need is for Bosh to do the dirty work, which he hasn’t done.
The guy needs to be mean and to command the inside paint to free up the Dynamic Duo (cliché intended once again.) This whole deal about the Big Three not showing up is jumping the gun.
Why did we assume that all three would be bona-fide monsters on the court? Let’s face it: we all knew Bosh was going to take the back seat anyways. What got me all riled up was this concept of the “Big Three” failing to live up to expectations, as that implies that each player would have to outdo his previous individual performance. Bosh has certainly played adequately on the offensive side, but rebounding-wise he is nowhere to be seen.
Again, what we should have expected was a Dynamic Duo instead of a “Big Three.” Really, all Bosh needs to work on are his rebounds and his aggressiveness on both sides of the ball, and everybody would be happy.
And I’ve just realized this throughout my rant, but why are we even worried about this? We’re barely into the season. Besides, we all know that Mr. Stern will pull his strings and give us the Lakers vs. Heat Finals we (or at least his market analysts) are hoping for.
In order to be concise (and appease my gracious editor) here it is:
For those who don’t know what it is, I’ll just paraphrase what I wrote six weeks ago: “For those of you who didn’t get the chance to watch all the games or highlights this week — I did it for you. Notwithstanding, given that the news is inundated with superfluous and overtly descriptive accounts of each game, I have taken it upon myself to describe each game with no more than three words in a segment I like to call, “Third Down Description” (Insert déjà-vu joke here)
Saints vs. Panthers, 34-3: Bye Mr. Fox.
Chargers vs. Texans, 29-23: Rivers leads comeback.
Jets vs. Lions, 23-20: Jets break lion-hearts.
Bears vs. Bills, 22-19: Bills being Bills (Yes, I do kind of feel bad for them.)
Vikings vs. Cardinals, 27-24: Favre rallies Vikings.
Browns vs. Patriots, 34-14: Mangenius gets revenge.
Falcons vs. Bucs, 27-21: Turner powers win.
Ravens vs. Miami, 26-10: Ravens bully Dolphins.
Giants vs. Seahawks, 41-7: Giants shoot albatrosses.
Eagles vs. Colts, 26-24: Vick plays exceptional.
Oakland vs. Chiefs, 23-20: Oakland is back?
Packers vs. Cowboys, 45-7: Packers dump doughboys.
Steelers vs. Bengals, 27-21: Steel Curtain survives.