I am fine with Chris Bosh playing at center against Dwight Howard.
Bosh can defend Howard better than Howard can defend Bosh
Also, Rashard Lewis can defend Bosh better than Howard can defend Bosh. Bosh is a lot more effective as a center against Orlando than as a power forward.
I'm curious - why do you think Bosh is better at defending Howard than vice versa? Dwight can move Bosh out of the way no problem.
Bosh's numbers vs the magic last season were pretty good - at power forward.
Dwight Howard defended Bosh during most of their matchups with the Raptors last season. Lewis took Bargnani. On the other end of the court, Bargnani defended Dwight most of the time (did a good job too) while Bosh took Lewis.
In the past, Dwight Howard has had the odd big game offensively against Bosh but most of the time Bosh has done a good job containing Dwight in one-on-one situations. Bosh isn't a physical post defender but he understands positioning well and sticks behind Dwight and makes him work hard for his shot attempts. On the other end of the court, Dwight hates defending Bosh 15-18 feet from the rim + cannot contain Bosh's jump shot and/or his drives. Bosh has a much easier time consistently scoring against Dwight Howard than Dwight does on Bosh.
When Dwight Howard has had big offensive games against Bosh it has rarely been one-on-one offense ... It's been the Raptors perimeter players inability to play adequate defense which has allowed Jameer Nelson or Hedo Turkoglu to get into the lane easily off the pick and roll which forced Bosh to help on them and left Dwight Howard open around the rim either for the easy pass and flush or offensive rebound and putback.
Unlike the Raptors, Miami has strong perimeter defenders and can do a solid job denying dribble penetration decreasing the need for Bosh to play help defense ... which forces Dwight Howard to play one-on-one offense against Bosh and Bosh has generally (not always but most of time) done a solid job defending Dwight Howard in those situations.
Dwight Howard will still score some against Bosh but Bosh will do a reasonable job + Bosh will be more prolific and efficient attacking Dwight Howard on the other end of the floor.
To add some more information on this:
Splits
* 2006/07 -- Bosh averaged 34 points and 11 rebounds against Dwight in three games
* 2007/08 -- 33 points + 7.5 rebounds in two games
* 2007/08 Playoffs -- 24 and 9
* 2008/09 -- 25 and 13 in four games
* 2009/10 -- 24 and 10
I can't find the link but sometime around the end of the 2008 season after Bosh scored 40 points on the Magic and both before and during the playoffs ... Stan Van Gundy talked about how difficult a matchup he was for Dwight Howard and said some very nice things about Bosh. I can't remember exactly what but it was along those lines.
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The reason Dwight Howard struggles against Chris Bosh is because Bosh has a quickness advantage against him when Bosh faces up 15-18 feet from the rim. Howard isn't used to being pulled away from the rim and defending out there.
Bosh is excellent jump shooting big man, excellent first step and regularly beats his man off the bounce to either score at the rim or get to the free throw line (top 10 in FTs last four years). That threat, the combination of the jumper + the drive + Bosh's ability to draw contact and get Dwight in foul trouble ... makes Bosh a very difficult matchup for him.
Quick word on Rashard Lewis -- Chris Bosh does not have a quickness advantage against Lewis. This reduces the effectiveness of his face up game and allows Lewis to have some very good defensive sequences against Bosh. Unfortunately, Bosh's post game isn't what it should be, so Bosh doesn't have much alternative but to continue battling away in a situation where he doesn't have an advantage. He'll still score some because he's very talented but Bosh will be less prolific and less efficient against Lewis.
To meander on some more ... the 2008 playoff series
If you watched this series closely you'll discover that Dwight Howard got a huge portion of his baskets + offensive rebounds on possessions where Bosh was forced to help on dribble penetration.
On possessions where Bosh defended Howard straight up, Bosh did reasonably well. And overall, was doing very well against Howard when you consider how he was lighting him up on the other end of the floor.
The Raptors failed in a couple of areas defensively in that series (1) man to man perimeter defenders (2) screen and roll defense both on the screen and off the ball (3) failure to rotate down onto Dwight after Bosh rotated to cut off dribble penetration + consequently failure to box out out Dwight since they didn't rotate in the first place.
When you eliminate a good dose of those defensive miscues, as Miami will be able to do, then you can also eliminate a good dose of Dwight Howard's dominance in that series. It will also decrease the amount of energy that Bosh has to spend on help defense and allow him more energy on the backboards + Bosh will continue to be able to torch Dwight whenever he so wishes on the other end of the court and will have more help from Wade and LeBron to create offensive balance.
A couple of other notes on that series -- Bosh not only got no help from his teammates defensively
(especially pick and rolls) + he also got very little help offensively
(Jason Kapono was the Raptors second best offensive threat) + Bosh got very little help on the backboards
(huge factor because defending Dwight in the post takes a huge physical toll, limits the explosion for rebounds particularly rebounds outside of one's area).
Topic: Is this a fair trade? (Hornets and Orlando) (Read 3860 times)