The Bleacher Report had a little recap of today's Suns-Raps game (thanks to Raptors Republic for the link) and other than the usual, this stood out:
"..when Toronto needed calm leadership, nobody stepped up.
Chris Bosh, who had just moments earlier scored a basket and was fouled by O'Neal missed a crucial free throw, went missing. Whenever the Raptors look to their franchise man for a big play, Bosh seems to look elsewhere.
If Bosh does have the ball in his hands, his "move" consists of nothing more than a stutter step followed by a jump shot. Rarely does he attack the hoop and when he does, it's without conviction."
Ouch. They nailed it. I guess it's no secret, the whole world knows. No, Bosh isn't Kobe, LeBron, or 'Melo, but he is still our franchise player and one hell of a player. He hasn't shown that he'll takeover in the clutch in big moments, against big teams (the Bobcats don't count). The whole of Raptor nation knows this, but maybe where I differ is that I truly believe he has the skills, he just doesn't do the 'right thing'; it just irks me that he doesn't make better decisions in the clutch. That last line really hit home, about settling for a jumpshot instead of driving hard all the way to the hole. We need more of what he's doing to Brian Skinner in that picture.
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To be honest, I thought that starting lineup was very interesting. Mainly because, I think defenses had a lot of trouble figuring out what was going on. I felt like I couldn't follow who was playing what position and creating what play. Unfortunately, I think things start to fell apart once we went to a more traditional lineup, but when we went back to that strange extremely tall lineup, we did start to get back into the game. Something to think about I guess.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree with you about Malin. I was just watching Raptors Post-Game and Jack Armstrong had a good point; he said it's worked so far with Parker at the point because he hasn't really faced opposing point guards who've put a lot of defensive pressure on him (Jarrett Jack, Steve Nash), so once that happens we'll see how it works out. But so far, I'm with you, I think it's been a nice surprise. Plus, I'll take Parker at the point over Will Solomon anyday.
ReplyDeletethink that says a lot about Will Solomon.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it must be the biggest slap in the face for a guy who's
been playing point for his whole life to be replaced by AP cause there's
no one else.
Found the site through Republic.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you should ever quote anything from the Bleacher Report. Ther are maybe one or two writers there that know what they're talking about when it comes to Raps ball.
Chris Bosh does attack the rim with conviction, that's not his major problem. His issue is that he doesn't have the skill to finish in traffic and needs a complete blow-by to score, not just a partial one where he manuevers against help. If the foul is called, good but if it ain't, it's not.
I don't really know where people started to think Bosh doesn't attack enough. He's not an attacker, never was, probably never will be, especially if he's going to player power forward, he doesn't have the strength to be an attacker. We live and die by his jump shot, and lately, we have just been dying by it. I've never really noticed him as having a nice touch around the basket. His points by the rim are dunks, that's about it, when he post's up, he misses more often than not on his fade away or his hook. I think his fine touch could be noticed on the fast break against phoenix when he missed. He's a jump shooter, get used to it. As Barkley pointed out during the playoffs last year, "why do they go to Bosh, he doesn't have an advantage on Howard." Unless this guy can put on another 40 pounds, he's never going to have the body to be durable and strong enough to be a consistent attacker.
ReplyDeleteBosh will only attack in a mismatch situation. Sometimes I wish we had a franchise player, who played at the guard position instead of a big. I see Bosh as more of a complimentary player than anything. It just so happens he's our most talented athlete. Would you trade Bosh for Beasley? Am I committing a sin for even thinking this?
ReplyDelete