FanHouse LeonPowe

Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?

Here are five moves that might not have gotten a lot of attention but were very solid nonetheless:

--Raptors get Marco Belinelli from Warriors for Devean George, cash: Belinelli may not be a starter in the NBA, but he can be a rotation guy. And it just so happens the Raptors are pretty much bereft of two guards. That alone should get Belinelli on the court, and from there he'll certainly help at various junctures. As for George, who knows if he'll be healthy and who knows if he'll be able to crack the Warriors' rotation if he is.

OAKLAND -- Signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers turned out to be a pretty easy decision for Leon Powe. Sure, LeBron James had something to do with it, and so did Shaquille O'Neal, not to mention the realistic possibility of winning an NBA title.

But a lot of it came down to peace of mind, and it's obvious that the Cavaliers' willingness to trust Powe when it came to his left knee and its rehabilitation was a big factor in the signing.

Powe is coming off surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee and is targeting a February return. Powe's been down the rehab road before -- two other times, in fact -- so his estimate is likely pretty solid. It's a timetable the Cavs are fine with.

Celtics forward Leon Powe tore his ACL in Game 2 of Boston's playoff series against the Bulls. A hard-working fellow who, in two seasons, had put himself in position to get a decent contract in restricted free agency, Powe had suffered another in a long line of amazing disappointments. Powe grew up in a broken family, spending time in foster care. His mom died while he was in high school. He tore his ACL twice, once in high school and once at Cal.

Every challenge life has thrown out Powe has been defeated. This latest ACL tear has killed his chance of getting a big lucrative contract this summer. Even worse, it might leave Powe completely unsigned -- completely unemployed -- as the Celtics have decided to not make Powe a qualifying offer.

Leon Powe was diagnosed with a torn ACL and meniscus in his left knee earlier today. The injury will obviously sideline him for the rest of the playoffs and into next season. There's never a good time for a player to suffer a serious injury, but when you think about, this quite possibly might have been the worst time for Powe to go down.

From the team's perspective, Kevin Garnett's injury has already left the rotation incredibly thin up front, and statistically speaking, Powe's (17.2 PER) was the most productive big man off the bench. And from Powe's perspective, the injury all but guarantees that he'll miss out on scoring the first big contract of his career.

FanHouse previews the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Believe it or not, Boston's 62-win season this year might be even more impressive than their 66-win campaign a year ago, especially when you consider the world champs had a target on their back the entire season and Kevin Garnett played a mere 57 games. The Bulls, meanwhile, made the jump from winning the lottery to getting back into the playoffs despite losing Luol Deng for the last two months of the season. The Celtics are favored, and for good reason, but Chicago's athletic young core will make the champs work for every inch.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

LeBron James' triple-double streak ended at three, keeping Michael Jordan's modern-era streak record (seven) safe. LeBron, however, knows a few different methods in which to peel a potato. Usually, it's the Swiss Army knife -- carving off the skin with a variety of tools, each one at the ready for immediate use and abuse.

Friday night in Sacramento, LeBron decided to use a hachet. With his Cavaliers down 14 to the Worst Team in the League, LBJ scored 16 points in the fourth and six points in overtime to get Cleveland the victory and by extension the Central Division crown. The Chosen One finished with 51 points and nine assists.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Kobe Bryant reads the New York Times Magazine, and dangit! Shane Battier ... why do you have to diss Kobe in public? Michael Lewis' February love letter to Daryl Morey and Battier talked about how the Rockets make KB inefficient. With Ron Artest also on board, things look bleak for the Laker superhero ... right?

KB scored 37 points on 14-of-23 shooting (.609 FG%) in Houston last night. Lakers win. Whoops! Maybe such stories are best reserved for the offseason, when Kobe can get distracted by shiny things (like gold medals).

In the long-form tradition of The Rotation, Tom Ziller considers the action the morning after each game of the NBA Finals.

Big moments in sport often provide the stage for monumental upsets. Super Bowl III. The Miracle on Ice. Doc Rivers over Phil Jackson. ... No, really! Rivers, according to popular opinion, outcoached the nine-time champ in Games 1 and 2. Schemes, motivational codas, rotation decisions: Rivers played everything close to perfect, while the Zen Master was left answering questions about what went wrong.

But big upsets are often flukes. Over the course of a best-of-seven series, truth will typically win. We saw that happen very clearly in Game 3, as Rivers easily retook his seat as "Coach WTF?!"

Want to chat up the FanHouse guys about the Finals? Want to come up with new and inventive puns to use with Leon Powe's name? Want to mention the little known fact that the Celtics shot more free throws than LA in Game 2? Want to ask Ziller how he comes up with all those wonderful charts? Want to ask Brett Edwards how many puppies he's kicked in the last 24 hours? Here's your chance!

At 1PM EST, today, FanHouse will be hosting an NBA Finals Chat. We'll be around to talk about Game 2, preview Game 3, and get your questions and comments about the NBA Finals, as well as to make fun of Mark Jackson. Stop by and check it out.

Over at The Sporting Blog, Shoals has an indictment of the pleasure heaps Leon Powe has received since his stunner of a night in Boston. Shoals argues:

Scoring a lot of points in a small window of time, especially off the bench, can just mean that no one's paying attention to the player. Like he's limited, defenses know it, and are willing to take their chances.

L.A. provided only sporadic resistance to Powe's advances, sure. But let's be honest: L.A. provided only sporadic resistance to Paul Pierce, too. Does it mean Paul Pierce's numbers were artificially inflated? No, of course not, and no one would argue that.

But rejecting Powe as truth means you're diminishing the skill level it takes to come up off the bench in your first IMPORTANT pro game and thoroughly dominant. No one's paying attention to Kendrick Perkins either, and he didn't score 21 points. Powe wasn't uncovered on all those makes -- he had the benefit of oft-crappy defense and near-perfect delivery from Rondo, sure. But it's not like he got open threes all day.

And that's the real difference between Tarence Kinsey and Leon Powe: this is repeatable. Guards can come in and go 5-for-6 from deep and score 25 points in a spit of minutes and never replicate it again. I mean, Tony Delk can go for 50 points once every 545 games, right? But Powe's acted like this -- a man who will attack and attack again -- all season, and hell, his whole life. 20-point games in the deep post don't come on a lark.

Besides, if Carl Landry can be a superstar, why can't we believe in Powe?