Why Chris Bosh is a superstar
Bosh's role among the Miami SuperFriends obscures his true quality
Updated: April 6, 2013, 12:38 PM ET
By Ethan Sherwood Strauss | ESPN.com/TrueHoop
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Chris BoshD. Clarke Evans/NBAE/Getty ImagesChris Bosh beat the Spurs with a 3-pointer, but is that really what a big man is supposed to do?
Obviously, the Miami Heat must retain you-know-who in 2014, when he can become a free agent, as he's not yet 30 years old, he's at the top of his game, and he's coveted the league over.
The man's certainly proven himself worthy of such high-level, pull-out-all-stops wooing. After we saw him at his weakest moment in the 2011 Finals, he swam through an unrelenting media bile flood, persevered, and came out a champion on the other end. In the most nervy, high-leverage drama, he pulled Miami back from the brink with big shot after big shot. Let the skewering subside, because this is his time.
Those two paragraphs could describe LeBron James, but the above sentences also fit quite snugly around the game and reputation of a gawky, brilliant center. He is Chris Bosh, a big man hiding in plain sight, a superstar obscured while playing for the most visible team, and a winner facing the kind of unabated public mockery that greets losers.
Bosh is better than ever, though he's had a difficult time convincing folks of this while plying his trade as a supposed third wheel. He's made sacrifices for victories, and such sacrifices have resulted in withheld praise as the wins pile up. It's principally why he's the most maligned Big Three member, despite last year's playoffs proving Miami's stark need for his presence. It's principally why, with Dwight Howard still not 100 percent, Bosh has a claim to the "best big man" title, a designation usually reserved for guys who live near the rim.
The rebounding problem
When Bosh's rebounding numbers took a dive from his Toronto days, so too did his reputation. There are certain expectations for a big man, and we haven't completely moved on from the era in which a big man's role was quite specific. The assumption is that if you aren't pulling down at least 10 boards, you aren't doing your job.
When power forwards and centers miss that threshold, they're ridiculed as "soft" or worse. To some, Bosh is "just a jump-shooter," as though being an elite marksman were a problem for a basketball player. Though the frontcourt positions have evolved, the criticisms of these big men remain rather Neanderthal. It's far more common to merely cite raw rebounding totals than look into how rebounds relate to role.
At less than seven boards per his average 33 minutes, Bosh probably should grab more rebounds. But his relative lack of boards is mostly a function of a job well adhered to. As Couper Moorhead of Heat.com has pointed out, Bosh's boards have declined sharply alongside LeBron, as Bosh's job is to seal off an opponent and serve as fullback to James' rebound rushing attack. This epitomizes how Bosh's role with Miami has gone: He mustn't go for his own numbers but instead fit his game to the overall Heat approach.
Shooting star
Bosh's floor placement is another example of how he's subsumed his game into the team concept. Bosh exists far from the hoop so that LeBron can live close to it. Back in 2009-10 with the Raptors, more than half of CB4's shots were close to the rim. Today, less than 40 percent of his tries are near the bucket. Usually, such a stat would indicate decline. Not so in Bosh's case, as he's transitioned from a penetrating offensive focal point to a guy who better serves his team as a shooter.
If Bosh is a perimeter decoy, mainly positioned so as to free up the paint for LeBron and Wade, then few decoys are as deadly. This year, Miami's big man is hitting more than half of his long 2-pointers, defying that shot's foreboding status as the worst in hoops. He's become, by some measures, the game's best in the midrange (shooting better than 50 percent on long 2s, and being especially deadly near the right elbow, as this Kirk Goldsberry piece illustrates), and fueled his team's unstoppable pick-and-roll attack in the process.
Bosh's shot can be a decoy within a decoy, as he has one of the most effective shot-fakes in basketball. As he pretends to hoist, his right foot lurches a step back by which to launch his dribble toward the rim. Defenders can't see this, as they must leap at the shot (fake) and watch helplessly as a supposed big man demonstrates guard skills by driving towards the hoop. It's an ability you associate more with perimeter guards than with a center listed at 6-foot-11. It's an ability that few similarly sized players have the ability to stop.
The Heat greatly benefit from their center's propensity to play as a guard would. The problem for Bosh is, we generally judge players based on how much they imitate what we've come to expect from their position. Just as Westbrook is too much of a scorer to be a "true" point guard in the public's estimation, Bosh's rep takes a hit because he doesn't act like a center or even his former position of power forward. To be the rare tall guy with little guy skills is to be derided for not acting your height. This, despite the obvious advantages to being as skilled as you are tall.
A different kind of efficiency
Bosh also suffers reputation-wise from a lower usage rate and fewer minutes. As Kevin Pelton has elucidated, using more possessions can boost a guy's advanced statistics.
How can a player with barely a 20 PER be a superstar? Well, Bosh can't be involved in as many possessions, given that he shares those possessions with two other superstars, so his PER is far lower in Miami than it was with relatively talentless Toronto (it was 25.1 in his final season there). Despite taking more long jumpers than ever, Bosh has a spectacular true shooting percentage of 59.0 (just 0.2 off his career high). In short, he's become a more efficient scorer while subsisting on the most difficult of shots.
Ask yourself: Is Chris Bosh playing any less hard than the days where he averaged 24 and 11? Is he any less effective? Close observation would prompt a "no" to each question, and closer observation would actually reveal improvement. He shoots better than before, he defends better than before, and he uses his right hand with increasing facility.
With Dwight Howard diminished, Toronto's version of Bosh would be held in higher regard than any other big man in basketball, on the offensive end at the very least. Well, the Toronto version (and then some) still exists. He's just such a chameleon that it eluded your eyes. He's just so camouflaged to his team's offensive and defensive needs that his adaptability was mistaken for a vanishing act.
On the whole, Bosh is a good defender. He is quick and long and adheres to his responsibilities on pick-and-roll defense. He's also absolutely crucial to this particular team. In last year's playoffs, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo abused Miami's Boshless D until the Heat got a full complement of their big man in Games 6 and 7. We can quibble over whether Bosh is an elite defender, but Miami's defense has a vital need for what he does against taller opponents.
A winning player, and a superstar
Save for winning a championship, Bosh is in the perfect storm for getting underrated. He plays against prototype for his position, sacrifices his numbers to help his team win, appears next to two more famous superstars, and plays fewer minutes than similarly talented peers. It's enough to make people forget about a shot to win a Finals game, and a 3-pointer flurry that sank the Celtics in Game 7 of the East finals. It's enough to make us eventually forget about his latest clutch game-winner against San Antonio, because we aren't exactly compiling a dossier on Chris Bosh: The Winner.
But Bosh is a winning player, and an improved one. Even better than that, he's a superstar. The poor guy just happens to be trapped under a lot of teammate possessions and a lot of misguided perceptions.
In 2013, the best center can be someone who doesn't dominate the paint. In 2013, the best center can even be the third best player on his team. And in 2014, he's a big man that other teams should want.
Ethan Sherwood Strauss contributes to the TrueHoop Network.
told yall nikkas mike was back the cat out the bag now nikkas know wassup damn this nikka came back at the right time too another 18+ points off the bech 
we so spoiled it's 
