Does it help marijuana plants bud bigger when you cut the leaves off?

Yes it does, in dutch we call this 'Dieven'. By cutting the plants lower leaves in the last 2/3 weeks before finishing the flowering period, you can gain extra growth in the buds. The dieven helps all nutricient fluids to go directly to the buds wich causes extra growth. Stop giving extra nutricients the last week and only give water. This wont make your buds taste weird, since there will be no extra nutricients in the buds.