When was the last time Leon was crappy? Sometimes Doc won't play him, or pulls him after a couple of minutes, but Leon has been one of the most consistently productive players on the entire roster. Check out Hollinger's PER stats -- Leon is 22nd in the whole leauge, behind only Garnett on the Celts. He is just an incredibly efficient player because he doesn't try to do more than he's capable of. He hits the boards hard, finishes extremely well inside and doesn't turn the ball over.
If he misses a defensive rotation or two, he more than makes up for it with offensive boards. Could he keep up the same pace for 35 minutes a game? Probably not, but he adds so much to the team, there's never an excuse not to give him 15-20 minutes. Yes, even ahead of the legendary PJ Brown.
He would foul out.
We need Perkins/PJ Brown size and defensive presence.
Powe is still very inconsistent from game to game. Yesterday, he was great; tomorrow he can be crappy. One never knows. There's no point in keeping him in the floor if he's not scoring/drawing fouls.
He played crappy in game 1 of the Detroit series, and then played just as bad in the first two minutes he was in there in game 2 before getting pulled.
Attribute to what you want, I personally think it was matchups more than inconsistency...but either way, he didn't play well.
Those are the only games I remember specifically, although I do remember that he was very disapointing overall for much of the Atlanta series. He played great in game 1, and then basically disapeared for a few games (despite playing minutes).
Powe played 8 minutes in game 1 against Detroit, score 4 points on 1-1 from the field and 2 for 2 from the line, grabbing 2 boards. In game 2, Powe played 3 minutes, did not take any shots and grabbed 2 boards. Maybe Powe missed a rotation, who knows, but how can you or Bud determine Powe played crappy from 11 minutes of playing time over two games?
Against Atlanta, Powe averaged 7.8 and 4 if you kick out game 3 where he played 6 minutes. I don't think anybody is expecting Powe to average a double double in the playoffs because that's the big three's job to do so. But to say Powe played poorly in the playoffs is not really substantiated by anything but your opinion. Powe did exactly what he was supposed to when give enough minutes.
Averages are insignificant when talking about consistency, so let's stop with those stats. Now let's take a look at the games in which he played and how he peformed. Keep in mind that I don't remember the specifics of all of them, so we can assume for the most part that his defensive rotations were poor because that's been my impression of him through most of the playoffs:
ATL Game 1: 24 minutes, 4 rebounds, 10 points - Alright with his scoring, but did a poor job rebounding the ball.
ATL Game 2: 14 mimutes, 3 rebounds, 3 points - Poor game.
ATL Game 3: 06 minutes, 0 rebounds, 0 points - Poor game, did anyone see Leon play? I couldn't find him on the court. Just awful.
ATL Game 4: 22 minutes, 2 rebounds, 3 points - Once again, a disappearing act from Leon even though Doc gave him extended minutes after 2 awful games to give him a chance. He blew his opportunity.
ATL Game 5: 23 minutes, 7 rebounds, 10 points - Can the real Leon please stand up? Finally he shows what's he's capable of in the playoffs.
ATL Game 6: 15 minutes, 4 rebounds, 9 points - Good/decent game. Was productive offensively, but would've liked him to rebound a bit better.
ATL Game 7: 20 minutes, 4 rebounds, 12 points - Another good productive game offensively, but where are those rebounds?
Series summary: Poor series in the beginning overall, heated up towards the end... but lets keep in mind that most if not all of his good games came in games that were complete blowouts and he wasn't needed. In tight games, he layed complete eggs when we needed him the most. For the most part, he was out hustled by a young Atlanta team that seemed to want the ball more in regards to rebounds. Where is this so called consistency from Powe that everyone is raving about? Nowhere to be found.
Cle Game 1: 13 minutes, 4 rebounds, 0 points - Not much to say, other than a better rebound rate than the usual in the playoffs. Did nothing offensive wise. Who knows how he sucked defensively, maybe he didn't, but chances are that he did.
Cle Game 2: 28 minutes, 7 rebounds, 11 points - Once again the real Leon shows up. Good game.
Cle Game 3: 15 minutes, 2 rebounds, 6 points - Awful game.
Cle Game 4: 6 minutes, 0 rebounds, 2 points - Another awful game.
Cle Game 5: 4 minutes, 1 rebound, 0 points - Where's Leon? Not playing because of another 'no show' for him. Davis came in and had a decent game.
Cle Game 6: DNP - 3 awful games in a row for Powe, Davis out played him in the last game, so of course he gets to play. Did a poor job though, what a surprise... Doc gives someone a chance (Powe or Davis) and they don't reward him with his confidence in them. The story of the playoffs. Doc started shortening his big man rotation at this point.
Cle Game 7: 7 minutes, 0 rebounds, 4 points - Alright game offensively, but once again Leon, where are you crashing the boards?
Series summary: Awful series for Leon. Once again didn't show up to rebound the ball, bad defensively. Once again I ask, where is his consistency? I don't see it anywhere.
Don't think I need to speak about the Detroit series, he showed nothing in the little that he played initially. Was making the same mistakes from previous series, didn't inspire confidence... seemed like he was coming with more of the same incosistency from earlier series.
Then came the Lakers series, finally the real real Leon Powe shows up. Playing decent defense, being energetic, having an impact. If he had played like this earlier, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Doc would've played him what he deseved. But he didn't. Most of the chances Doc gave him, he blew. We're in the playoffs, this is not the time to suck. Show up and play like you're capable of.