At least Los Angeles Lakers fans are patient. The Heat fans were calling for Chris Bosh 15 games into his Heat tenure!
People forget that Chris Bosh was a can’t miss All-Star in Toronto without the dreadlocks. Bosh had to adjust from being the number one option up North dropping more than 24 points in his last season being a Raptor. When he decided to join LeBron and Dwyane Wade in South Beach, man the adjustment period was massive.
Does this sound familiar to the complaints about Kyle Kuzma? Bosh’s numbers dropped to 18 points a game his first year in Miami. His field-goal percentage and rebounds were down. His 3-point shooting fell off the cliff from 36% to 24%. When the Heat were struggling at the start of the season at 8-7, there were cries for Bosh to be traded.
In fact, his points and rebounds declined each season with LeBron James in their four-year span playing together. When LeBron went back to Cleveland, Bosh numbers went back up.
Bosh’s explanation to Bleacher Report.
"“Yeah, it’s a lot more difficult taking a step back because you’re used to doing something a certain way and getting looks a certain way. And then it’s like, well, no for the benefit of the team, you have to get it here.” “‘You’ve got to do this! You’ve got to do that!’ So you’ve got to fight that. ‘Why don’t you do this? Well, you should do this!’ It’s like, man, they don’t need me to do that, I know what I’m doing. ‘Well, you should do this.’ And then eventually, on one of those days, all it takes is one time, well, maybe I should be doing this. It’s such a psychological battle.”"
Kyle Kuzma is dealing with this right now. His growth will be doing things that will not be seen in box scores the next day. Like Chris Bosh, he will have to sacrifice. If he sacrifices and plays winning basketball, the Los Angeles Lakers will be in the Western Conference Finals.
He just has to block out the criticism of the obsessed analytic followers that grade by stats and stats alone.