Everybody Hates Chris: Why Can't Bosh Put It Together?

Beating a dead horse is never a nice thing to do.

But Chris Bosh has had this coming for awhile now.

After being featured on a series of mediocre-at-best Raptor squads for the better part of a decade, he left Toronto saying he wanted to promote his own brand and win titles in Miami.

Two weeks into the season things are not bearing well for the former CB4. Statistically, he has seen his glowing 20-10 from the last 5 seasons fall to a measly 14 and 6, numbers that are easily surpassed by the likes of Lamar Odom and Tyrus Thomas. His brand surely hasn't seen a raise in stock; after being roasted on message boards and newspapers all summer, Carmelo Anthony came forward saying that he "wasn't Chris Bosh", when referring to his impending free agency situation.

On the court, things are even worse. Followers of Bosh will know that his time in Toronto was spent largely at the elbow and facing the rim in a one-on-one situation. Now that he isn't handed oodles of isolation opportunities every game he is having a tough time finding points within the flow of the offense. Defensively, his old problems are showing worse than ever in Spoelstra's system. His poor defense at the rim is being abused every game and his slow reactions and help defense is being abused by opposing point guards.

It's pretty apparent things didn't work out exactly as expected, but the question now is whether or not Bosh can turn it around and become an important piece of a winning team in Miami.

Scoring is generally considered Bosh's best asset. Being an excellent midrange shooter with good quickness and handles makes him a problem at all times for other big men, but he can only score as much as he shoots. A good indicator of the number of chances a player gets is their usage rate, which measures the number of possessions that ended with them shooting (either from the floor or the line) or turning the ball over. Without being able to shoot frequently a player can't expect to score many points and with Bosh's usage rate at 18.4% (compared to those of Wade and James at 29.7 and 30.1, respectively), it is very unlikely he will be scoring over twenty per game anytime soon.

Rebounding has become another one of Bosh's calling cards, his rebounding style is some blend between Gerald Wallace, Kevin Garnett and lack of inspiration. After averaging 10+ rebounds per game for 3 of the last 4 years his rebounding numbers have dropped nearly in half this year, a cause for concern to Heat fans. His rebounding percentage is down to 10.9%, after a career year of 17.7% last year. This large drop is easily explained as Bosh is surrounded by bigger, stronger and more skilled players at nearly every position which leaves less loose balls for the taking.

Playing defense has never been a big part of Bosh's game, but he was always able to use his athleticism and decent size to compete head-to-head with any other power forward when playing for the Raptors. On Miami, the team uses more help defenders and rotations to utilize their athleticism on the defensive end. Bosh was never asked to rotate defensively in Toronto and it is becoming very apparent that there was a good reason he wasn't asked to do it often. On top of this, he still shows sign of reluctance defending the rim, which is easily seen in this Rajon Rondo dunk.


Like a deer in headlights.

So it seems that Bosh isn't showing many signs of playing much worse in Miami, he just doesn't fit in with the system very well. His best skills (scoring and rebounding), aren't nearly as needed in Miami as they were in Toronto and the worst facets of his game (help defense and awareness) are now showing more than ever. So while the numbers look bad, and it looks like he's playing worse than ever, it's just the same old Chris.

And while you might want to feel bad for him a little bit, try not to. He pushed his way into stardom with some silly decisions and he's paying the price now, taking his spot as a third man on a team without a true point or centre. So it looks like Chris better get used to his spot in Miami, he has no one to blame but himself.