Sullinger Shooting 3's

[blink]

As long as Sully is taking the shots within the flow of the offense and he is open, I don't have a problem with it.  Last year he seemed to have a good shooting touch.  It would be great for Sully and KO to at least be a threat from 3 point line.  It will open up a lot of space for the rest of the offense.

I don't think Sully has the same mentality as the guy who said "because there aren't any 4's".  So I am not worried about him becoming AW.

[2short]

If he and KO can show 30% shooting three pointers AS TRAILERS I'm okay with it.  Sort of like McHale used to do, I'd rather neither big is out that far unless its to set a screen.
I'm for ball movement and cutting for wings and bigs down low or as far as sully & ko love them on high post as passers.  Both guys (ko especially) show nice passing skills.

[Celtics4ever]

Which what was released in the paper it will be a shooting range from 3P tonight.   I think we have 5-6 guys who can shoot it ok,  1-2 who can shoot it well, no one can shoot it good and the rest of the roster makes me cringe when they shoot it.

[guava_wrench]

If he is on the floor with another big who wants to work down low, he will find himself on the perimeter at times, sometimes behind the 3pt line. When setting pick, he might also hind himself there.

It is preseason. This is the time to try things out. These games don't count. At all.

[Steve from Milford]

I really bought in to the statements that the Celtics are not tanking. Of course I didn't include Danny in that as most teams that tank do it from the top by how they structure the roster not by the coach or players (not counting M.L. Carr of course).

However, I now believe that Brad Stevens is tanking. His instructions for all of the bigs hoist up a 3 whenever they are open, is clearly designed to lose games. Calling it a "strategy" is plain nonsense.

[BballTim]

but i would think Sully's biggest value to the team is to be where the true high % shots are - from right next to the hoop.

I'm not optimistic about his ability to be a reliable finisher around the basket. He's surely crafty, but he doesn't have any particular size, length, or lift to write home about.

For what it's worth, he shot .300 from 3-10 feet, and .667 from within 3 feet (both were drawn from nontrivial sample sizes). Which to me means that unless he's getting an open layup or a dunk, he's not very good in getting close shots off.

  Different websites have slightly different numbers, but from hoopdata that .667 would be slightly above average for rotation-level power forwards. Also, you'll find that it's fairly common to see largish fluctuations in those 3-10 foot jumpers for many players. It's probably not a *tiny* sample size, but if he took 1 such shot a game then 1 more made shot a month would have pushed him close to 40% on those 3-10 footers.

The sample size is 40+ 3-9 ft shots total, it's not a lot but enough to draw some inference.

But yes, fair enough, the data shows two things: (1) inside shots may be Sullinger's best weapon, relative to other shots (though I don't think there's enough data for conclusive evidence on long jumpers), and (2) when he comes to inside shots, he's pretty much average.

I'll stipulate that his % assisted for close shots is lower than the average, so he works for some of these. Yet, I can't see a player who was on par with the league average as a credible long-term threat.

  I'd say that part of the reason for the low assist % is that he's a good offensive rebounder. In any case, it's fairly typical for a young player's inside fg% to go up by a decent amount after a few years, so his being on par with the league average in the first half of his rookie season is pretty encouraging.

[chambers]

He's obviously been given the green light by his coach. They're trying to make him the ultimate stretch four aka a rich man's Carlos Boozer. Good idea.
if he can drag his defender out of the paint it will create mismatches.
Same goes for Olynyk.
We are a horrid 3 point shooting team overall. Probably the worst in the league?

[SHAQATTACK]

This is a development season,  about sorting out the team and seeing who is be staying with what skills.

[LooseCannon]

My dream roster is Rondo plus 3-4 guys on the floor who can shoot threes, with a top five defense.  Think of it as an inverted form of the SVG-D12 Orlando team.

If the math says Sullinger should take a three then, by God, I want him to take that three.

[lightspeed5]

danny told him to do this. we're trying to get wiggins.

[D.o.s.]

I don't think we have anyone as talented as Antoine (re: scoring) in our big rotation.

[clover]

If he and KO can show 30% shooting three pointers AS TRAILERS I'm okay with it.  Sort of like McHale used to do, I'd rather neither big is out that far unless its to set a screen.
I'm for ball movement and cutting for wings and bigs down low or as far as sully & ko love them on high post as passers.  Both guys (ko especially) show nice passing skills.

Ugh. That sounds like a bad idea to me, but other teams would like it. There's no opportunity for a bad 3-point shooter to shoot even a corner 3 as a trailer.