Image courtesy Ryan Hurst designs
“He’s doing a little bit more, [but] he’s still indefinite,” Spoelstra said of Bosh. “For me, it’s my responsibility right now to prepare this team without him. If and when we get to a point when he starts to emerge into the picture, we’ll gladly deal with that. For our mental state of health — and I’d love to [get] Chris — but our preparation is without him.”
Chris Bosh is a good player. We joke around. We have fun at his expense because he has had the toughest transition to the Big 3 circus in Miami. But he’s good.
But a funny thing happens when he faces Kevin Garnett. Let’s check NBA.com’s Stats Cube for the numbers:
KG plays worse in a Chris Bosh game when Bosh is on the court. Bosh plays worse in general. And this takes me to a quote from Frank Vogel after he got eliminated.
“Chris Bosh is an awesome basketball player, but when he goes down, that just means more touches for LeBron and Wade,” Vogel said. “That’s not exactly an advantage.”
Focus on the second part for a minute. More touches for Wade and LeBron is a bad thing indeed. Especially when you have a matchup that Bosh loses. Back to Stats Cube for a minute
KG’s numbers with Haslem on the court take a bit of a hit. That’s not to say he can’t get going against Haslem, but Udonis is tougher, and he’s a better defender. Plus, Haslem doesn’t demand touches like Bosh does. Haslem gets leftovers right now and his job is to just knock down shots when LeBron or Wade have drawn a ton of defenders.
With Bosh in the game, he needs touches to get going. He needs more than overflow offense or else he gets whiny.
Again, it’s a tough argument to make because it’s not like Bosh is a slouch. He can burn you if you let him. But it’s obvious that KG is in his head, too.
Bosh might miss this series… and you’d think that’s a good thing. And I think it is… but the numbers seem to tell a little different story.
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