BBD / Is Big Baby being showcased (merged)

[expobear]

BBD is playing out of necessity, not because he is being showcased.  The fact is, he has much more value to the C's, than any other team out there.  The reason he is playing over Powe, is because Powe's rotations have been horrendous, and lately teams have been exposing it more and more.

Powe is always a step or two late on his rotations, and teams have learned how to beat the C's defense if they are not rotating on time.  Davis is by far the best team defender (other than perhaps Scal) off the C's bench, so if they took him out of there, without replacing him with a sound defensive player, there would be even more of a revolving door to the basket when Perk and Garnett are not in there.

I think the best example (or most obvious of late) of Powes problems come from the drive by Lebron last night, where he beat his man with a crossover, and then Powe nearly fell over backwards, as Lebron crossed over again to fly past him.  This was made possible, because Powe was about two steps late in blitzing the perimeter.  If he had rotated like he was supposed to (and like Perk, Garnett and Davis do), he would have cut off Lebron's progress, by creating a wall with Lebron's man (who was actually showing Lebron to the middle where he expected help from Powe), and forced Lebron to give the ball up.  Instead, he got embarrassed.

Now, I know pointing to a move by Lebron is not really fair, but this is not a one time thing.  Powe is constantly making mistakes like that, that one was just a nice obvious one to point to.  There were at least 3 layups in the Houston game, that were directly attributed to Powe not rotating on the backside, when the frontside defender showed on the perimeter, forcing the pass.  Its a been a problem for a long time now, and unless Powe picks it up, he is going to be battling Davis (who is significantly less talented...but knows the defense) for minutes for the rest of the season.

Out of curiosity, do you know how many offensive fouls Powe picks up per minutes played?  I have to think Powe gets it right sometimes because he seems to be in the right place or is rotating correctly when he draws offensive fouls.

[Chris]

BBD is playing out of necessity, not because he is being showcased.  The fact is, he has much more value to the C's, than any other team out there.  The reason he is playing over Powe, is because Powe's rotations have been horrendous, and lately teams have been exposing it more and more.

Powe is always a step or two late on his rotations, and teams have learned how to beat the C's defense if they are not rotating on time.  Davis is by far the best team defender (other than perhaps Scal) off the C's bench, so if they took him out of there, without replacing him with a sound defensive player, there would be even more of a revolving door to the basket when Perk and Garnett are not in there.

I think the best example (or most obvious of late) of Powes problems come from the drive by Lebron last night, where he beat his man with a crossover, and then Powe nearly fell over backwards, as Lebron crossed over again to fly past him.  This was made possible, because Powe was about two steps late in blitzing the perimeter.  If he had rotated like he was supposed to (and like Perk, Garnett and Davis do), he would have cut off Lebron's progress, by creating a wall with Lebron's man (who was actually showing Lebron to the middle where he expected help from Powe), and forced Lebron to give the ball up.  Instead, he got embarrassed.

Now, I know pointing to a move by Lebron is not really fair, but this is not a one time thing.  Powe is constantly making mistakes like that, that one was just a nice obvious one to point to.  There were at least 3 layups in the Houston game, that were directly attributed to Powe not rotating on the backside, when the frontside defender showed on the perimeter, forcing the pass.  Its a been a problem for a long time now, and unless Powe picks it up, he is going to be battling Davis (who is significantly less talented...but knows the defense) for minutes for the rest of the season.

Out of curiosity, do you know how many offensive fouls Powe picks up per minutes played?  I have to think Powe gets it right sometimes because he seems to be in the right place or is rotating correctly when he draws offensive fouls.

He absolutely gets it right sometimes.  But not nearly enough.  And I would argue that if he was really rotating quickly enough, he wouldn't be drawing offensive fouls, he would be cutting the players off much higher, forcing the play to be altered, instead of stepping in, and trying to roll the dice that they are going to call a charge instead of a block.

[housecall]

I'll never understand why Davis became a jump shooting player this year.

Iwill never understand how he bypassed the D-League first...they should have sent him there last season(imo).

[Chris]

I'll never understand why Davis became a jump shooting player this year.

Iwill never understand how he bypassed the D-League first...they should have sent him there last season(imo).

What would he have gotten from playing in the Dleague?  Even for his detractors, it seems like the negatives are mostly physical stuff, not learning how to play. 

[Scalablob990]

I have one question before I say anything. Does anybody really think SCAL is a better defender then Leon Powe, BBD aside for the moment.

[Chris]

I have one question before I say anything. Does anybody really think SCAL is a better defender then Leon Powe, BBD aside for the moment.

It depends what we are talking about.  Is he a better team defender?  Yes.  Is he a better perimeter defender?  Yes.  Is he a better low post defender? No. 

So I think overal Scal is a better defender, but really, they have different specialties. 

[Chief]

From what I've seen, Scal is a good man on man defender (except when guarding Rasheed) but a lousy team defender. Especially when he is out there with the 2nd unit.

[housecall]

I'll never understand why Davis became a jump shooting player this year.

Iwill never understand how he bypassed the D-League first...they should have sent him there last season(imo).

What would he have gotten from playing in the Dleague?  Even for his detractors, it seems like the negatives are mostly physical stuff, not learning how to play. 

Exactly,it would have given him more incentive to get into NBA ready physical(shape) condition or stay there for an extra yr.

[Andy Jick]

maybe we can trade BBD to McDonald's...they could probably use a spokesperson.

he has no ceiling on his potential...nobody wants him and i don't blame them.

[ben]

In my opinion, BBD is playing because he's been better than Powe. As simple as that.

Agreed.  Better defender, better passer, has a jumpshot , better free throw shooter.  He's also was able to pick up the rotations as a rookie (higher BBIQ?), something Powe still struggles with at times.

Better defender?  Opposing power forwards are shooting 42.9% against Powe, and Powe is outrebounding his opponents.  Opposing centers are shooting 51.3% against BBD, and he's getting significantly outrebounded.  When Powe is on the floor, opponent's average 5.6 fewer points per 48 minutes than when BBD is in there. (85.9 vs. 91.5).

Better passer?  Probably, but their assist rate is almost identical.  (1.4 assists per 36 for Powe, 1.6 assists for BBD).

Has a jumpshot?  Baby is shooting below 30% on jumpshots.

Better free throw shooter?  Again, perhaps, but last year Powe's percentage was higher, and Powe gets to the line more than twice as much as BBD, on a per minute basis (8.4 FTA/36 vs. 3.8 FTA/36.)

Powe is a much better scorer (16.0 pts per 36 vs. 8.5), shooter (53.5% vs. 36.9%) and rebounder (9.6 rebounds per 36 vs. 6.5).  Not surprisingly, Powe's PER is more than twice that of BBD (16.9 vs. 7.8 ). I don't think it's possible to argue that BBD is better.

"I don't think it's possible to argue that BBD is better."
I agree, it's not possible, and thats why it bothers me so much to see BBD taking the minutes i guess.  It frustrates me also because usually Doc doesn't like to play second year players like BBD, I would think Doc would be more comfortable playing the third year hard working player Powe.  Great post though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67QijRisHWM

[Roy Hobbs]

Well, I'm sure today's 1-for-12 helped that shooting percentage.   

I think BBD has surpassed Tony as my least favorite Celtic.

[nickagneta]

Well, I'm sure today's 1-for-12 helped that shooting percentage.   

I think BBD has surpassed Tony as my least favorite Celtic.

Is that because you don't consider Patrick O'Bryant a Celtic?

[Roy Hobbs]

Well, I'm sure today's 1-for-12 helped that shooting percentage.   

I think BBD has surpassed Tony as my least favorite Celtic.

Is that because you don't consider Patrick O'Bryant a Celtic?

Haha.  Pretty much, nick.  POB doesn't play enough for him to really get under my skin.  He's just a waste of space.

[Bankshot]

I liked what I saw from BBD today (except the missed lawyups ). Seems like he's gotten himself into the same rut Leon was in, trying to create contact instead of concentrating on making the shot.  The kid can finish wide open layups, which is a lot of what he missed today.  The shots he took were good and wide open ones, mostly in the flow of the offense.  Give him another game like that and I don't think he misses so many easy inside shots next time.  His defense was really good and he did a good job on the glass.  Defense is the reason he's getting minutes over Powe, not his offense.

So overall, I was happy with the way Glen played, again, with the exception of easy layups he should have absolutely finished.  KG wasn't much better btw, if at all.

[housecall]

Well, I'm sure today's 1-for-12 helped that shooting percentage.   

I think BBD has surpassed Tony as my least favorite Celtic.

that might be a case of out-of-sight,out of mind.Wait he will come back and do something to make you rank them equal.