Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George thinks that the Miami Heat’s decision to slide Chris Bosh down to the center spot against his former team — the Indiana Pacers — transformed the NBA.
“When we played Miami, and they put Chris Bosh at the 5, I think that’s when the league literally changed,” George said. “‘Cause we were one of the last teams to be like two bigs, two like real bigs — David West and Roy Hibbert — not 3-point shooters, midrange shooters.
“Defensively, Miami struggled against that until they moved Chris Bosh at the 5, and they played four wings, and then that was how you beat the Pacers. That was the blueprint to beat the Pacers at that time.
“And then we saw it with Atlanta. They put [Pero] Antic at the 5 — he was a shootin’ big. [Al] Horford at the 5, a shootin’ big. And that gave us the most problems. And then now, that’s what you look for. You want a shootin’ big — there is no 4 man no more. The 4 man is a guard, a wing now.
“We take a lot of credit. That Indiana Pacers team take a lot of credit for how the game is.”
When Bosh was a member of the Toronto Raptors earlier on in his NBA career, he hardly attempted shots outside the 3-point arc, and that was also the case at the beginning of his tenure in Miami. But with every passing season of his Heat tenure, Bosh seemingly became more comfortable taking and making 3s.
Ultimately, Bosh averaged at least one attempt from 3-point range per game in each of his final four seasons in Miami. Furthermore, in his last season with the team, the 2015-16 season, he took a career-high 4.2 triples per contest and knocked down 36.5 percent of them.
One needn’t look any further than the Boston Celtics squad that won the 2024 NBA title to understand the importance of having bigs who can stretch the floor in today’s league. Horford is 38 years old, but he is one of the top floor spacers at his size in the NBA. He knocked down 41.9 percent of his 3-point attempts during the 2023-24 regular season.
Kristaps Porzingis was another important big to the Celtics’ championship puzzle, even if he was sidelined for much of the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Porzingis shot 37.5 percent from deep across 57 games played in his first regular season in Boston.
The 3-point scoring that Horford and Porzingis gave the Celtics was a huge reason why Boston was arguably the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA last season. During the regular season, Boston knocked down a league-high 16.5 3s per contest and also finished with the second-best 3-point percentage of any team in the NBA (38.8) behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Fortunately for George, his current team in Philly has a center who isn’t afraid to let it fly from deep. Joel Embiid is one of the best centers in the world, and he shot a career-high 38.8 percent from 3-point range in the 2023-24 regular season.