Put it this way, how much better would the Heat be if they could replace Bosh two solid players? Especially considering so many would willingly take less money to play for the Heat? He’s paid like a superstar but he’s far from it. His numbers declined when he moved to Miami and they are down this year from last, despite the Heat playing a much more free-flowing offensive game.

Bosh put up nice numbers (5 straight seasons scoring 22+ and a capable rebounder) before going to Miami. Granted he was the only one taking the shots for the Raptors and they were terrible, so you could rightly argue that he’s not much different than Granger in terms of lacking the ability to be a true alpha dog on a quality team. But it bears repeating, with Bosh on this Pacer team as currently constructed we would be a legitimate contender to win it all rather than the feel-good, mid-market dark horse with an NBA legend building a team the right way. He’s been a much more consistent scoring threat throughout his career, which is clearly the Pacers biggest need (and has been since…JO?).

Please spare me all the rhetoric about Bosh being soft and not fit to lead a team. While his previous all-star appearances would put a little more of the spotlight on him than the rest of the guys, the look and feel of the team wouldn’t be too far off from what it is right now. And let’s be honest, playing in Indy obviously doesn’t come with the same pressure as in NY or LA. Obviously the $110 million contract as opposed to $20 million is a big difference in terms of the big picture, but let’s pretend:

Bosh 18-20 ppg
Granger 15-17
Hibbert 13-15
George 10-12
Collison 10-12

Not many teams can really match up with that/want to see that in a playoff series, and that’s not even factoring in the bench.