What is Sully's ceiling?

[GreenEnvy]

i haven't been this excited about a young Celtic since Rondo.  Actually... probably since Big Al.  Big Al's ceiling seemed limitless.

I'm not sure how good Sully can be.  He's still fat.  Will be interesting to see him when he's in shape.  He's the youngest player on our team and statistically the best.

I doubt he will ever be in great shape or athletic. He just has the type of body that will always be a little round. He also will always lack height.

What he does have is great hands and a good IQ.

I think he can be a fringe all-star, maybe even making the roster eventually. He will be a double-double machine. His individual defense may not be spuerb because of his size/speed limitations but his IQ should make him a very good team/help defender.

[sofutomygaha]

Rasheed Wallace!

Ceil-ings. Nothing more than Ceeeeeeei-lingggs

[tstorey_97]

I don't think KLove is the right comparison overall. I am not sure who to match him with simply because he's unique. The man has so little in the hops department and he makes up for it completely with his brains and using his body so effectively. He has very soft hands and his timing is as good as it gets.

Sully is not a laser beam getting back on defense. Excuses can be made for this, but, all stars are the players who do not need excuses.

Sully with a really good center will be the foundation of a title roster.

All star with the concept that others who can leap all over the place will sometimes get more votes.

[BudweiserCeltic]

He has a pretty high ceiling, and he's really good at converting the midrange/long two... let's see if he makes more use of it with Rondo around.

[Boris Badenov]

I did this comparison over the summer based on his rookie stats, so I'll update it here.

Here is a list of every player in NBA history who, at age 22 or under, averaged better than 18/9/2 per 36 minutes (and also played serious minutes):

Duncan
Barkley
Blake Griffin
Bosh
Kevin Love
Larry Johnson
Chris Webber
Clark Kellogg
Elton Brand
Kevin Garnett
Antoine Walker
Demarcus Cousins
Terry Cummings
Cliff Robinson
Otis Thorpe

That's it. Quite a select group.

If you go and pin down the group whose stats are most comparable, and also focus on guys who were mid-range shooters more than post players, you have:

Bosh
LJ
Cummings
Kellogg

If I had to generalize I would put all of those guys in the "occasional All-Star" category.

Now, the one thing that really differentiates Sully is his 3pt shooting this year. If you extend the criteria to include ">1 3pt FG per game" then there are literally no matches. Of course, for the older guys this is no surprise given how the game's changed. But it's worth noting that Sully's closest match in the modern era - Bosh - has never shot more than 2.3 3 pointers per 36 minutes.

Bosh's career percentage is lower than Sully's this year, and I think it's reasonable to expect Sully to improve at least a bit.

If you project Sully to improve his shooting while maintaining a decent volume, he becomes really unique. Not Kevin Love unique (due mainly to rebounding), but  an inside/outside presence of very high caliber.

Here's a link if you want to play around with the criteria.

http://bkref.com/tiny/r1q3X

[LarBrd33]

i haven't been this excited about a young Celtic since Rondo. 

Which basically means that next year you will be starting your "Its time to trade Sullinger" posts and threads like you did with and continue to do with Rondo??

Sully is 20 years old... we have 3-4 years until we realy know what we have with him.  And you always take a star big over a star PG. 

Tell ya what... if Sully proves to be a flawed fringe star, blows out his ACL 7 years from now and the team is in "rebuild mode"... it might be time to trade Sully. 

In 2005 it might have been time to trade Pierce.  In fact, we tried to trade him to Portland for a pick that would have been used on Chris Paul, but Pierce killed the deal for us.  That didn't change my love for Paul Pierce.  I love Rondo too... just gotta be realistic about this stuff.

[RJ87]

He's like a hybrid of Kevin Love, David West, and Zach Randolph. I think his ceiling is pretty high - he's always had lottery level talent and he's a hard worker, the question will always be health.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Charles Barkley. No joking.

[ManUp]

Have you ever seen Charles Barkley play? What part of Sully's game even resembles Barkley? Worst comparison that I keep seeing.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Have you ever seen Charles Barkley play? What part of Sully's game even resembles Barkley? Worst comparison that I keep seeing.

Same body type. Consistent double-double output. Lots of hustle on the boards.

But at least you're not condescending.

[Vox_Populi]

Have you ever seen Charles Barkley play? What part of Sully's game even resembles Barkley? Worst comparison that I keep seeing.

Hey, now. The question was what Sully's ceiling will be, not who he resembles. Nothing wrong with being optimistic.

[2short]

Have you ever seen Charles Barkley play? What part of Sully's game even resembles Barkley? Worst comparison that I keep seeing.

Same body type. Consistent double-double output. Lots of hustle on the boards.

But at least you're not condescending.

barkley came into the league the mound round of rebound but quickly made himself into TOP shape, he was a 6'6" force of nature
i originally was putting sully into a paul silas comparison but that has changed with his marked improvement this season
still thinking….

[Jailan34]

I can't tell Sully's ceiling until the end of this season. Sully's had a great start with numerous 20-10 games. If he keeps this play up consistently all season, I'd say Sully's max ceiling is a 2-4 time all star.

I'm surprised how effective he's been at this level. I expected him to get his shot rejected like Glen Davis did, but Sully's been great at finding unique angles to create his own shot.

He's on track to becoming our most productive player even when Rondo returns.

[ManUp]

Have you ever seen Charles Barkley play? What part of Sully's game even resembles Barkley? Worst comparison that I keep seeing.

Same body type. Consistent double-double output. Lots of hustle on the boards.

But at least you're not condescending.

Body type? Barkley was 6'4 with wide shoulders and thick lower body. He was lean for the majority of his career, he was never Sully's size during his playing days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu3vkwP3GHQ

As you can see there style of play is in no way comparable.

[2short]

a hybrid charles oakley and larry johnson

he's shown range, shooting touch and good passing (johnson)
low post force, knows how to use his body to get shots off and rebound(oakley)

how is that for realistic!

or how about dave cowens without the motor? good passer, jump shooter (cowens today would have 3 pt range), sully is not the defender though