NBA Top 50: Chris Bosh (No. 28) ~ no title

OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Tuesday there are 28 days left.

Busy Bosh was 27 on my list last year, but when I set about compiling this year's and figured him at today's slot, I thought it was low. I checked back at how I'd ranked him in the 2008 offseason, and lo and behold, the same. Look, I think the world of Bosh, and by all accounts he's a great guy, great to have in the locker room or on your computer screen. Yeah. The other thing that puts him higher on my character list than this is his performance in the Olympics, when Dwight Howard pulled a bit of a disappearing act. Still, his failure to make the playoffs two years in a row is damning. Damn damning.

Chris Bosh Bobbled, originally uploaded by longshots.

Look, it's not really all his fault. The team just doesn't have enough cylinders to fire on with Calderon holding all the distribution rights. Hopefully the arrival of Hedo alleviates that factor a bit. Still, can you really say the Raptors were that much worse than the Heat, both teams sans their superstars? Wade willed that team to the playoffs. And, sure, you can make the qualifying statements like Wade is able to will a team because he has the ball in his hands, blah blah blah. But if Bosh can't do that because he's a big man, that just reinforces the idea that the importance of big men is fading. Or perhaps it's their effectiveness that's fading.

Bosh has been mentioned in the same breath as Lebron James and Dwayne Wade and Ama're Stoudamire, especially with the 2010 free agency topic always hot on tongues that wag. The fact of the matter is Bosh isn't quite in the same class as the first two, and wouldn't be in Ama're's either if Stat wasn't looking more and more like crunch time, choking Karl Malone rather than the Mailman of the first 45 minutes of a game. Bosh, again, is a great player (22, 10, 2.5 assists, a steal, and a block per game gets it done, folks), but look for him to make the Pau Gasol step in years to come. He really doesn't seem destined to be a Shareef Abdur-Rahim player, who will always put up good stats for a bad team. Chances are he'll team up with a dynamic wing, and that'll allow the world to truly appreciate Bosh for the complete presence he can be. For now, 28 Mr. CB4.