Paul George broke down a pivotal moment in modern NBA history which changed the NBA into the league we see today on the latest episode of 'Podcast P'. George was reflecting on the offensive evolution of the NBA over the last 10 years and credited the Miami Heat and Chris Bosh for revolutionizing how offense is played as a stretch-five.
“When we played the Miami Heat and they put Chris Bosh at the 5, I think that’s when the league literally changed. We were one of the last teams to have like two real bigs, David West and Roy Hibbert, not 3-point shooters or mid-range shooters. Defensively, Miami struggled against that until they moved Chris Bosh to the 5 and play four wings. That was how you beat the Pacers. That was the blueprint."
"Then we saw it with Atlanta, who put (Pero) Antic at the five, he was a shooting big, Horford at the five as a shooting big. That gave us the most problems. Now, you want to look for a shooting big. There is no four-man now, it's usually a wing now. We take a lot of credit, that Indiana Pacers team, for how the game is now.”
Teams had tried using five-shooter lineups in the past but it was almost impossible to find sweet-shooting big men until the 2010s.
Even a shooting big like Dirk Nowitzki was rarely played at center, as the conventional NBA logic at the time would dictate Nowitzki to be a four-man with a bruising big man in the middle to absorb defensive pressure.
Nowadays, we see teams play players at the center just because they can give them a five-out option. Bosh, was still a big, who averaged 18.0 points and 7.3 rebounds during his stint with the Heat, adding the three-ball during his time there to make the team even more lethal.
What Bosh and the Heat did led to the same NBA where a few years later, teams were throwing 6'5" PJ Tucker at center to stretch the floor or using an All-NBA level perimeter defender like Robert Covington at the center because of his shooting prowess.
Udonis Haslem Called Chris Bosh The Most Important Member Of The Heatles
On a roster featuring probably the best version of LeBron James we've ever seen, Miami Heat legend and former teammate Udonis Haslem declared Chris Bosh as the most important member of that roster.
"LeBron was the best player on the team, the best player on planet earth," said Haslem on 'The OGs' podcast. "The most important player on our team was Chris Bosh because of the matchups he created. A lot of times when Bron and DWade need to get into that paint they were attacking the paint. Now when you got a guy like Chris Bosh to space the floor it gets the five-man away from the basket and that just allows LeBron and Wade to be their best version."
Bosh's career was cut short due to heart issues, so we didn't get to see him use his shooting skill to extend his NBA career like he could've. Nonetheless, he is a Hall of Famer and will be given more recognition as time goes on for how his decision to become a sweet-shooting center revolutionized the NBA.
