Chris Bosh:"Lakers Have The Best Team...On Paper"

[TheeBeast]

3:15 p.m. EDT, August 24, 2012

MIAMI—
It's been two weeks since the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic, which at least has given Chris Bosh time to collect his thoughts.

"As soon as the deal happened, my brain went 100 miles an hour to another place, far away from here," the Miami Heat forward said Friday during a radio appearance on WQAM.


And now that he has collected his thoughts, where does he view the Lakers in terms of his own championship team? His candid answer caught hosts Steve Goldstein and Adam Kuperstein a bit off guard.

"The Lakers, I think, right now, I mean on paper, they probably have the best team in the West and probably the league right now," he said. "On paper. I'm saying on paper. But it's a lot, a lot, it's a long season. And the best team always isn't the one who starts out the season as the best team.

"We know we're the champs, but we have to start off from scratch. We have a lot of chemistry building to do. And we have to come out there and we have to start over. We know favorites and all that stuff really doesn't matter."

Bosh said the Heat have learned to deal with the type of pressure the Lakers are expected to face and "how the hype can get to you."

Bosh pointed out how the Heat stood as championship favorites in 2010-11, only to fall in the NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, and how they did not have quite the same expectations and then defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in this past season's NBA Finals.

"It's all about who's standing at the top in June, after the season is over, and that's all we care about," he said. "So we have to build toward that again."

While he declined to predict where the Heat would stand at season's end, he said an NBA Finals against the bolstered Lakers would be intriguing.

"It's even better to think about we can possibly play them in a classic series one day, with everything on the line," he said, "but that's a long ways away."

He said it is difficult not to envision something special with Howard, Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol playing together.

"It's very intriguing, especially not only with Dwight but with Steve, them signing Steve and everything, so it'll be interesting just to see what type of offense they run, what their philosophy is going to be," he said. "But we have our own things we have to get better at, and we just have to concentrate on ourselves. But we will be watching them, that's for sure."

Even with the Lakers' height, Bosh said it doesn't necessarily mean the Heat abandoning the approach that had Bosh at center and LeBron James and Shane Batter at power forward during the playoffs.

"Well, we won a title doing it. It's all about chemistry," he said. "It's all about how you can work together. They're going to have strengths and weaknesses, we're going to have strengths and weaknesses, too. And over the course of a season, I believe we make great adjustments and we can do a lot of different things.

"We're one of the most versatile teams in the NBA. So, I mean, we can play small, but as long as we win that rebounding battle, that's all that's important. With that said, they're a very big team, but we're very fast, so something's got to give."


SOURCE

Bosh just gained my respect


Thoughts?

[MrWarrior]

All he's doing is taking the pressure off his teammates.

Anyways, what he's saying is true.

[EnoughSaid]

On paper? Ehh I guess, but having only one player younger than 30 in their starting lineup isn't going to help later down the stretch.

[ILLsmak]

On paper? Ehh I guess, but having only one player younger than 30 in their starting lineup isn't going to help later down the stretch.

If Dwight and Gasol are healthy, it's going to be hard for the Heat to beat them.

-Smak

[game3524]

The Lakers are a poor matchup for Miami.

Their like Dallas on steroids.

[DKLaker]

The Lakers are a poor matchup for Miami.

Their like Dallas on steroids.

THIS

[SilkkTheShocker]

This is my opinion of the 2012-13 Lakers




Wake me up so I can see Lebron's Finals MVP speech

[greymatter]

Bosh just gained my respect


Thoughts?

He's the 2nd smartest guy on that Heat team behind Battier and easily the least douchiest of the big 3. I can't wait to see him light up Dwight like he always did in his Raptor days.

[SilkyJohnson]

The Lakers are a poor matchup for Miami.

Their like Dallas on steroids.

If the Dallas Mavericks were on steroids, their entire roster would be comprised of a group of players suffering from head-aches, diarrhea, mood swings and a whole host of other symptoms.

[TheeBeast]

If the Dallas Mavericks were on steroids, their entire roster would be comprised of a group of players suffering from head-aches, diarrhea, mood swings and a whole host of other symptoms.

[swag2011]

Lakers can match up with miami at every position besides sf. It would basically come down to who will have more impact, lebron or dwight? Both are most impactful on their respective teams. But of course both have to make the finals, lakers need to worry about okc first

[TheeBeast]

Lakers can match up with miami at every position besides sf. It would basically come down to who will have more impact, lebron or dwight? Both are most impactful on their respective teams. But of course both have to make the finals, lakers need to worry about okc first

Artest matches up great against Lebron on the defensive end. In fact, he's known to have low fg% on games against Howard's Magic and the Lakers with Artest, now with both of them defending him I'd like to see how he matches up against two DPOY.

[SilkkTheShocker]

Artest matches up great against Lebron on the defensive end. In fact, he's known to have low fg% on games against Howard's Magic and the Lakers with Artest, now with both of them defending him I'd like to see how he matches up against two DPOY.

Lebron averaged almost 40ppg with Dwight playing center in the playoffs.

[longtime lurker]

Meh it means nothing. Heat are still the champs until proven otherwise I'll give them that much respect. Bosh was just being honest, but I wanna see some championship swagga

[arifgokcen]

Artest matches up great against Lebron on the defensive end. In fact, he's known to have low fg% on games against Howard's Magic and the Lakers with Artest, now with both of them defending him I'd like to see how he matches up against two DPOY.

Lebron had the best losing performance of all time against magic.

and lebron scored 51points against magic.

Since 2008-2009 season artest wasnt even able to slow down lebron.He is powerful enough to hold his own against lebron in the post however lebron is gonna be playing PF not SF and this is gonna push brown to make some lineup changes.Another thing is lebron is much faster and slightly stronger than artest