It certainly would have helped the Raptors’ cause had Bosh been among the game’s top 15 players, a process conducted by members of the media.
It would have helped the Raptors’ chances of acquiring assets had Bosh been able to play down the stretch and had he been able to lift the team into the post-season.
If you scan the three all-NBA teams, each player was on a playoff team. Andrew Bogut (elbow) was hurt for Milwaukee and did not see any playoff action.
Maybe Thursday’s omission reinforces the widely held theory that Bosh, while good, is best cast in a subordinate role playing alongside a dominant player.
Bosh views himself as a franchise guy worthy of max money, which is why he has expressed a willingness to work side by side with the Raptors in a sign and trade.
Regardless of whatever tweet gets posted by Bosh or any misinformation circulated by misguided media outlets, people should not lose sight of the fact that a change for Bosh and the Raptors is what’s necessary.
This feeding frenzy serves no purpose, Bosh’s tweets merely reveal a longing to be in the spotlight and an insecurity that doesn’t make him unique in today’s sporting culture.
Whether Bosh is manipulating the process or if it’s the work of his handlers is irrelevant.
What’s relevant is determining his lot in the NBA food chain and his worth to the Raptors.
That is why Thursday was not a good day for Bosh’s ego and nor was it a good day as far as the Raptors should be concerned in parlaying an asset into something tangible.
Chris Bosh’s best year wasn’t good enough.
The Toronto Raptors all-star has been generating no shortage of conversation for his off-court actwittivies of late – asking fans about what he should do in free agency via Twitter, for example – but his performance on the floor left voters silent as the NBA announced its year-end all-league teams.
Bosh, 25, failed to earn a spot on the first, second, or third all-NBA teams despite a season in which he averaged 24 points, 10.8 rebounds and 51.8-per-cent shooting a game, all career highs.
He was also ranked the NBA’s fourth most efficient player, a catch-all category reflecting his all-round contributions.
So as he approaches free agency, and the questions mount — if Cleveland is knocked out, does LeBron go to New York and entice Bosh to go with him? What would the Raptors want from the Houston Rockets, who will reportedly make an offer? Should he buy an iPad?–one might start wondering if Bosh is worth the max contract he will undoubtedly receive.
But it’s a bit of a red herring. Bosh is worthy of all-NBA consideration most years; his team, however, is often the disqualifier. If Toronto wins 53 games and Carmelo’s Nuggets win 40, the voting changes. Win again, and he’s in the club again. Where will he win? Well, that’s really the only part of the Chris Bosh story worth talking about, most days.
Sam Mitchell, the 2006-07 NBA Coach of the Year with the Toronto Raptors, is scheduled to interview for the 76ers’ job, possibly as soon as this weekend, according to a source familiar with the Sixers’ situation.
Mitchell coached the Raptors from 2004-05 through the first 17 games of 2008-09, compiling a record of 156-189. He took them to their first Atlantic Division title with 47 victories in ’06-07.
Known as a tough, demanding, in-your-face style of coach, he has been an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Bobcats. He played for 13 seasons, 10 with the Minnesota Timberwolves, three with the Indiana Pacers.
Disingenuous use of social media? Sure. But for Heat fans, the response was obvious and en masse: Come to Miami, they said. We’ll have money, they said. Join Dwyane Wade, they said. Build something. Please. Help us. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY.
And they have gotten a little help, though not yet from Bosh. Thursday, when the star forward wrote he was thinking about buying an iPad, tennis star Andy Roddick offered to buy him one.
If the Raptors didn’t make the postseason in the Eastern Conference with Chris Bosh, that means they are going to be a really long way away from being a good team once Bosh leaves.
I think this pick is a no-brainer. The Raptors are going to try to pick the best PF available in hopes that he will be able to fill Chris Bosh’s shoes.
This draft is very deep at the PF position and Patrick Patterson is the next best PF available.
Although Patterson is undersized he has a PF body. He is an excellent shot blocker and rebounder and can be a physical presence down low.
Toronto could also draft a center and move Andrea to power forward but I think they go with this power forward instead.
Interviewing them isn’t a problem as long as you’re content with the response, ‘I’m not authorized to answer that.’ For example, “How old are you?” is a question they’re not authorized to respond to, even if one can simply find out by searching the NBA website.
In any case, they’re not under 20, and not over 29 – the age when, as per contract, they must hang up their uniforms. And you’ll never be able to determine what type of men the cheerleaders like because the most mundane of questions will be considered out of bounds. Patience. That means that every man can continue to dream.
Too bad, though, that one cannot confirm or explode the urban myth that the pompom girls, as per contract, are not allowed to have any relationships with players from the team they represent. To ask the question is permissible, but in this case it is absolutely forbidden for them to respond. So never mind asking whether they’ve picked up any Italian phrases from Bargnani or Belinelli. They won’t go beyond offering a smile.
Bosh has resorted to blaming the team around him, and has done so both tastefully and disrespectfully this season. It seems like the team’s struggles are a "we" problem, and when the team is winning, it becomes an "I" solution.
Luckily for him, he doesn’t have a single Ron Artest, Rasheed Wallace, or Zach Randolph on his team who would retaliate by questioning the leadership of the man who’s supposedly nagging injuries, lack of assertion, turnovers. and terrible play over the last 30 games caused the Raptors to drop from fifth to ninth in a terrible Eastern Conference.
While most Raptor fans are just now starting to turn on Bosh, I turned on him the minute I saw his true colors in 2006. It was at that point that All-Star votes become more important than winning, making YouTube videos become more important than adding weight in the gym.
It was at that point that I realized that Bosh doesn’t do the small things, or play solid defense because there is no statistical reward for doing these things. Let’s just say my Chris Bosh jersey has been in a box for a long time.
Beleaguered Toronto Sports Fan
You start to wonder if maybe it was a distraction this past season after all. He acted as though it wasn’t. But if you try to make heads or tails out of what happened in that Raptor locker room to affect their chemistry so badly this season, you can’t discount the notion that basically every player knew that Bosh was playing for his future, and there might not have been enough of a emphasis on the present and future of the team.
But then, can you blame him? There hasn’t been much, basketball wise, to magnetize him to this franchise. It is possible that he really does love this city, but would you blame him for wanting to have a go with some other team? It’s well documented on blogs like this that the Raptors have a fairly bleak future with or without Bosh, based on the core of this team. So you wouldn’t blame him for wanting a fresh start.
This year’s litany of injuries (strained Achilles tendon, torn meniscus) are not as serious as his two big knee injuries cited above, so why the non-thinking idiot “fans” (I refuse to call them real fans because of my sheer intolerance for idiots) once again clamoring to trade Bynum for, say, Chris Bosh (who conveniently was at courtside during Game 2 against the Jazz) is incomprehensible from every angle.
For one thing, it’s swapping a good center for a good power forward. In my book, centers are far more valuable than power forwards. The Lakers actually have two very good ones already in the books; why pay for another one and lose a good center in the process?
Another consideration is that Bosh is going to be a free agent once this season is over. So we can deduce some things quite easily at this point:
- He’s going to ask for a “max” contract.
- His current team, the Toronto Raptors, is not a big NBA market and will therefore have difficulties paying for Bosh’s services.
- Bosh has already indicated he wants to leave Toronto, refusing to sign a simple contract extension in the past.
In other words, Bosh will be a very expensive addition to any team that acquires his services.
Defensively speaking, I think Bosh is inferior simply because he’s smaller. The Lakers are forever being tagged as being “soft.” Why give away your only legitimate starting-caliber low-post defender for a smaller player who’s not as strong, not as long, not as heavy?
Now explain to me why Bosh would be attractive to the Lakers, short-term or even long-term?
