Column: Kevin Love’s struggles make it easier to appreciate Chris Bosh
By Wes Goldberg
Chris Bosh’s dramatic evolution into one of the most versatile players in the NBA is a rare feet, and one Kevin Love could not duplicate.
“Unless you have bad times, you can’t appreciate the good times.” One website attributes that quote to legendary New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, but I doubt he said it first. It’s also a quote that could be used as a caption to most every picture of LeBron James during these NBA Finals, in which his Cleveland Cavaliers currently face a 3-1 series deficit to the Golden State Warriors.
James’ two teams–the Cleveland Cavaliers playing in this year’s NBA Finals and the Big Three era Miami Heat–are often compared, and they ought to be. His decision to leave an aging Heat team to rejoin a rebuilt Cavaliers squad is critiqued and so the organizations are compared. There are the parallels: Pat Riley and David Griffin, Erik Spoelstra and David Blatt/Tyronn Lue, Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving and, of course, Chris Bosh and Kevin Love.
No two players’ paths resemble each other’s quite like those of Bosh and Love. Both of them put up monster numbers as power forwards for small market franchises. Both were considered top tier players, even though they never won anything of significance. Both teamed up James and a commercially successful guard (even if Wade, unlike Irving, was already established by NBA standards) and were deemed third in command of their Big Three.
If Love’s recent struggles and benching in the NBA Finals can teach us anything, it’s to truly appreciate the transformation Bosh made in just four years. From a one-dimensional, box-score stuffing stud to a sublime stretch-5 and small-ball pivot able to anchor a defense. It took almost two years, though, for Bosh to evolve into one of the most versatile 3-and-D threats in the NBA. It wasn’t until deep into Miami’s second playoff run in 2012 that Spoelstra moved Bosh to the 5 and bet on him being good enough defensively in order to create more room for James and Wade to operate in the paint. The bet paid off, with the Heat winning two-straight championships.
The Cavaliers have reached two NBA Finals with Love, and it’s clear now that he won’t make a similar evolution. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be the guy who’ll be a lock-down defender,” Love told the San Jose Mercury News before the 2016 Finals. “But as far as team concepts go and being a team defender, I think I’ve gotten a lot better.”
Not better enough. The Warriors attacked Love defensively every chance they got through most of the first two games, before Love got hit in the head and pulled himself out in the second half of Game 2 with concussion-like symptoms. He didn’t play in Game 3, and the Cavaliers were forced to start Richard Jefferson and move James to the 4, a tweak that seemed to spin Cleveland’s luck and launch the Cavaliers to a 30-point win over the Warriors. Love returned for Game 4, this time coming off the bench–the Cavs lost but it was at least close–and he’ll have to get used to that role for at least one more game.
Bosh in 2010 and Bosh in 2014 were alike in name and body, but not in ability or role. He had to change for himself and for the Heat to survive. If he didn’t, the Heat would’ve likely had to break up the trio. (Maybe the Heat would have traded Bosh to the Houston Rockets, as Bill Simmons once wrote, for Kyle Lowry, Louis Skola and Patrick Patterson.) He did, though, and Miami’s Big Three delivered. On the other hand, and because it’s irresponsible to pay a bench player $20 million a year, it seems the Cavaliers now will have to trade Love.
The paths of Bosh and Love started similarly enough, but they’ve made a clear split. While Love’s road may take him to another city and a new start, Bosh walks a clear trail to the Hall of Fame.
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Sometimes you don’t what you got ’till it’s gone. Heat fans found that out when James left and the team plunged into the lottery two seasons ago and twice more when Bosh missed the second halves on the last two seasons with a blood clot condition. Other times, you need a standard to measure against. It’s no real fault of Love’s that he hasn’t turned into James’ Bosh 2.0. He doesn’t have the same physical gifts Bosh does, and very few players have the ability to retool his DNA to fit a new role. If you didn’t appreciate Bosh before watching Love struggle to take that next step for the Cavaliers, well, you should now.