I think some nights he has juice in his legs and some nights he doesn't. The nights he doesn't he either shoots 3s or doesn't shoot at all. I thought his energy was pretty decent today.
It sounds bad but I think on days when he looks flat and uninterested Pop should call plays for him even earlier just to wake him up and force him to play hard. Especially on some road games against the East he just has this tendency to sleepwalk.
The thing about Manu is that he's so uninterested about being a star or winning awards or whatever that a coach can't appeal to his sense of "stat pride." Some games, especially if the team is winning, he's content to just coast. Of course if the team isn't winning, if they're down 10 in the fourth, he tries to get himself going, but often it's too late by then.
It's kind of the double edged sword when the team stresses getting Tim and Tony going early. Most nights you'll get Manu to join the party at some point, but some nights you won't.
As far as driving to the basket goes, a lot of times it depends on how good the screens he's getting are and how people are guarding him. That was the underrated thing about Horry and Rasho, they set good screens for him. Nazr was getting decent at it for a while too. I don't think Elson is very good at it right now.