Potential For Positions

Powe. Powe. Powe. We can't get enough of him. While every other big man has gone down for the C's, Leon has stood tall and defended guys larger than him night after night. His PER is 19.73. He once levitated over the Ganges. He can speak in tongues and only needs one hour of sleep a night. Seriously, Leon has been great. Obviously he still deserves considerable minutes when everybody gets healthy. If he can keep up a pace remotely close to this he will be very important to the C's come spring.

I found it interesting today to examine some statistics over at 82games.com regarding what Leon has been doing, and how playing center has affected him. It is pretty fascinating, take a look. A couple of things stand out (and yes, I know all these statistics are from a small sample size.) The main one is that Leon is a much better power forward than center. This isn't surprising, but what is kind of staggering is the differences between the two positions for Leon. At PF Leon has an awe-inspiring +15.9 PER advantage over his opponent counterpart. When you put him at center Leon still gets his personal numbers - but his opponent puts up even better stats. Leon is allowing a 29.3 PER to his counterpart at center - an MVP-esque PER mark. Whoa babe...

So while we can't fault Powe's play at center, or Glenn for putting him there in desperation, hopefully Leon will defend more power forwards than centers as the season progresses. Injuries could dictate otherwise. I have no idea when Big Baby will be back, his injury looked gruesome in person, and I am just relieved he will be coming back at all this year. Baby has had moderate success defending centers, better than Powe. Or you could always just have KG defend the center, he's still dominant, just not otherworldly like when he plays power forwards. Regardless, the only "real" center remains Perk, with Pollard still MIA and everyone else undersized. What to make of this? Who knows, except Powe should be defending the 4 man when possible...

>I have a couple random thoughts to toss out. I doubt many of you saw Ginobili douse the Cavs with 46 the other night, but it was arguably the best game a player has had this year; a shooting spectacle nonpareil. If you have league pass, watch the archive online. Manu being snubbed for the All-Star game is egregious. Baron Davis' exclusion is not as bad, but is rotten nonetheless.

>All these trades are making it very hard to know what the hell is going on. The latest rumor has Z-Bo going to the Rockies to join Iverson, Melo and Camby. I believe it, and it could be the crazy injection the Nuggets need to become yet another legitimate contender. One thing that hasn't been said all that much is how little time these traded players are going to have in getting acclimated to their new teams. 30 games (or less, especially in the Lakers' case) is such a short span. The inevitable lack of deep chemistry could have a huge impact on the WC playoffs.

>Jerryd Bayless right now is my #2 prospect in the draft after Beasley. He dropped 33 on California last night after having 39 the game before against ASU. He's a fucking beast at creating his shot and getting to the hole. He's considered a combo guard at this juncture, but don't let that distress you, Bayless can flat out ball. I expect him to be a better pro than Rose, Gordon or Mayo. He's on TV tomorrow against Stanford, to get you warmed up for the 2008 Haier Shooting Stars Challenge. God have mercy on us.