I've heard it thrown around a lot. He was great in the regular season, but he disappeared in the playoffs when it mattered most b/c he is a career-long choker. As the Pistons consider signing Webber, I think that his performance deserves some analysis.

First Round. Pistons vs. Magic
Webber matched up against Dwight Howard and/or Darko Milicic.

#1- 33 min/ 12 pts/ 5 reb/ 1 ast/ +3 Average
#2- 26 min/ 10 pts/ 9 reb/ 3 ast/ +7 Great (almost doub-doub in 26)
#3- 28 min/ 15 pts/ 7 reb/ 0 ast/ +2 Very good
#4- 35 min/ 11 pts/ 10reb/ 4 ast/ +11 Great

Round 1 was solid as heck. His 12pts/8reb/2ast average for the series in 31 mpg is almost exactly equal to Rasheed's stats this year. I would say that Webber "showed up" in all four games against Orlando, who we will likely face in the 2nd round this year.

Second Round. Pistons vs. Bulls
Webber matched up against Ben Wallace and/or Tyrus Thomas?

#5- 20 min/ 5 pts/ 7 reb/ 0 ast/ +2 Ave-below ave. Limited PT.
#6- 27 min/ 22 pts/ 7 reb/ 3 ast/ +8 Great
#7- 24 min/ 0 pts/ 3 reb/ 2 ast/ -17 Terrible
#8- 17 min/ 0 pts/ 1 reb/ 1 ast/ -16 Horrendous (Bresec-esque)
#9- 24 min/ 9 pts/ 8 reb/ 0 ast/ -22 Good production.
#10- 23 min/ 5 pts/ 9 reb/ 1 ast/ +8 Ave-good. Lot of rebs.

This was obviously a bad series for Webber. 2 total no-shows. However, 4 games with 7 or more rebounds in limited minutes. On the series, he averaged 23 min/ 6.8 pts/ 5.8 rebs/ 1.2 ast. This is very similar to Maxiell's stats this year in 23 mpg.

Third Round. Pistons vs. Cavs.
Webber matched up against Big Z and Sideshow Bob.

#11- 19 min/ 10 pts/ 4 reb/ 0 ast/ +1 Average
#12- 24 min/ 9 pts/ 7 reb/ 5 ast/ +13 Great
#13- 28 min/ 15 pts/ 7 reb/ 3 ast/ -4 Very good
#14- 20 min/ 2 pts/ 3 reb/ 1 ast/ +2 Very bad
#15- 30 min/ 20 pts/ 7 reb/ 0 ast/ +15 Great
#16- 26 min/ 13 pts/ 6 reb/ 0 ast/ -10 Good

For the series, he averaged 25 min/ 11.5 pts/ 5.7 rebs/ 1.5 ast. Pretty good averages for less than average playing time for a starter.

So, in summary, he had 3 very bad games, about 4 average games, about 4 good games and about 5 great games. In about 25 minutes per game in the playoffs, he scored in double digits in 9/16 games. He had 7 or more rebounds in 10/16. 6 games with multiple assists. And overall, he was +3 while on the court in the playoffs. His .524 FG% was 2nd to only Jason Maxiell.

Feel free to disagree with me, but I don't think that he disappeared. I would say that he had a hard time against the quickness of the Bulls, yet he held his own against the true 7 footers.

__________________
You can never have perfect introspection: because if you could, then you could determine what you were going to do ten seconds from now, and then do something else.

I guess I'm going to do some nitpicking. Did he offer us any advantage? Yea, he possibly held his own, but wouldn't we rather have someone to give us something extra?

Billups was on the Jim Rome show last night. CB said that CWebb was given a bad rap about the Pistons failures in the playoff. He said the entire team played poorly, including himself. Billups said that Webber made the entire team better.

I'm not necessarily saying that I want Webber back. Billups just talked very positively about him last night.

He was + in 11 out of the 16 games. So, he was 11-5 when he could do something about it. He was 4-0 against the Magic, 3-3 against the Bulls, and 4-2 against Cleveland. When he went to the bench and Dyess/Maxiell came in, then he was just as much to blame as we were.

I think the real problem was that he should have been holding up the bench unit with his rebounding, high % shooting, and passing skills.

If you're real concern is that picking up Webber will result in limited minutes for Amir, then I totally hear ya. Ideally, the coach could find a way to make it work... but we don't have an ideal coach.

10-15 mpg for Webber in the playoffs off the bench would be cool with me, depending on the match-up. Against certain teams, he should probably not play much at all.

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You can never have perfect introspection: because if you could, then you could determine what you were going to do ten seconds from now, and then do something else.

Billups has too much class to slam another person in public.

If Webber was truly playing poorly, then why didn't Flip go with Dyess as a starter? We had more big man depth last year than we do right now.

He could have simply started Dyess. Then he could have brought Dale Davis and Maxiell off the bench.

He did go public with complaints about Webber having the ball in his hands too much when he first came on board (and was playing exceptionally well).

You can't just change roles at the end of season. Dice surely wasn't ready for starting spot at C. It's very comfortable for fans blame somebody, who is "foreigner" in that team. Actually all team played badly( in cleveland series) and claim that CWebb just didn't live up the hype, is just ridiculous.

THANK YOU Tashawn!

I have struggled to understand the criticism of Webber. We got an older vet for PEANUTS, yet everyone was outraged that he wasn't averaging a triple double. I feel like he got an unfair bad rap, and I'm glad to see the numbers support that view. Great post!

"#8- 17 min/ 0 pts/ 1 reb/ 1 ast/ -16 Horrendous (Bresec-esque)"

...maybe this is a little to hard - even Muhammad doesn't look so Flipperesque anymore...