With all due respect, you ignored the point the last post made -- Doc judges whether Powe is playing good defense *differently* than he judges whether BBD (since you are very sensitive about Brown comparisons) plays defense.
Additionally, if your argument is true, Rivers must be a miserably bad coach. After all, Powe got a ton of minutes in the second half of the regular season + the beginning of the playoffs. If defensive rotation ability is the primary thing that should determine playing time, would you therefore agree Doc was hugely mistaken in the minutes he gave Powe for part of the year?
Actually. . . . I'll admit I kind of wrote that last paragraph in jest, but what do you think of it? Based on your logic, it sounds like you think Powe should have gotten no minutes all year. So how do you judge Doc's decision to give him lots of minutes at various points + what are the metrics you would use to decide on playing time. There are a variety of possible metrics based on various offensive and defensive skills as well as "energy" things.
Finally, when you say "whole season", etc., could you please cite some data or external quotations from experts? Here is a lengthy quote from John Hollinger over at ESPN.com about how Powe deserves more minutes.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=Awards_080516Put Me In Coach Award: Leon Powe, Celtics
Besides Kevin Garnett, the Celtics have four other big men. Of the four, Powe was easily the most effective in the regular season, but he's been an invisible man in the playoffs. Though the other three are struggling, Powe is averaging only 15.8 minutes per game in the postseason. In the past two games, he's sat in the second half while Doc Rivers played Glen Davis and P.J. Brown together.
This is a bizarre move. Powe, who gets little fanfare nationally, was one of the league's most effective power forwards in the regular season on a per-minute basis. His per-40 minute averages of 22.0 points and 11.2 boards jump off the page, as does his 57.2 percent shooting. In fact, Powe's 20.97 PER was seventh in the league among power forwards, outranking All-Stars Antawn Jamison, David West and Shawn Marion.
Given that Powe is both abundantly more effective statistically and has a massively better plus-minus in the postseason than Davis or Brown, it's been an odd choice to say the least. TNT's Mike Fratello alluded to five defensive mistakes Powe made in Game 2 of the Atlanta game during a telecast, presumably because Doc Rivers told him this. But one could also retort by pointing out all of the offensive mistakes that could be alleviated by having another frontcourt player in the game who actually scores once in a while.
Powe wasn't guarding two people, he was guarding the wrong person... Pierce was there. It was bad transition defense. It's been the story of the whole season though, Powe missing defensive assignments left and right, it's nothing new.
Powe and PJ shouldn't be even mentioned in the same sentence when talking about defense. Davis was a last resort, he had to play somebody. Didn't like what he saw from Powe, so he stuck with Davis... nothing wrong with that. Davis makes better defensive rotations than Powe, that's why he's getting the nod, even though Doc for the most part has given Powe the first chance at trying to have an impact in the game. But you NEED to play defense.
Topic: Powe in the late 3rd/early 4th quarter (Read 29932 times)