Do you agree with how Stevens is using Sully?

[jade88]

Now i'm not saying Sully has All-Star potential, but surely he is better than he's being utilized right? I get the feeling that Brad Stevens is so invested in the 3 pointer that he wouldn't know what to do with a Zach Randolph type, is he only into stretch 4s?

Thoughts on how Sully is being utilized by Stevens? Should we be seeing more Sully post ups?

[BudweiserCeltic]

Now i'm not saying Sully has All-Star potential, but surely he is better than he's being utilized right? I get the feeling that Brad Stevens is so invested in the 3 pointer that he wouldn't know what to do with a Zach Randolph type, is he only into stretch 4s?

Thoughts on how Sully is being utilized by Stevens? Should we be seeing more Sully post ups?

Took two 3-points on 15 shots last night.... HUGE investment...

[Who]

It's harder to get Sully advantageous situations in the post when opposing team's center is defending him. Sully has strength advantage over many PFs but lacks length / explosiveness to attack bigger stronger big men that play the center position.

Usually in those situations, when defended by bigger opposing player, Sully's advantage is out in the high post using his jump-shooting and passing to pull opposing center out of the paint as well as occasionally his driving ability when matched up against some of the slower centers in the league.

[furball]

This is what happens when your starting power forward is 6'7".  He can't just rely on posting up as he's always going against bigger, usually much bigger guys. 

[Chief Macho]

no problem with it.  sully isn't very good.  his defense is awful.  he's just a fat guy scoring points on a horrible team.  dime a dozen.

[manl_lui]

no problem with it.  sully isn't very good.  his defense is awful.  he's just a fat guy scoring points on a horrible team.  dime a dozen.

Sully is good. Defense is ok, maybe below average, but no worst than Kelly. And he isn't just a fat guy scoring points on a bad team.

We may be a bad team, but I think Sully deserves a little bit more credit than that

[Celtics4ever]

Sully has strength advantage over many PFs

I call BS, your aware that he only did 9 reps of 185 right in his combine and MS did over 20?  I think him being strong is a myth.  He has some weight which he uses to push people around.

He has great hands, but he is a very skilled and very flawed player.  Great rebounder, decent post player, all over the place long range shooter (preseason he was lights out) and mediocre defender.   He is tweener, SF height, and not very athletic amd struggles against length.   Despite all of this he finds a way to rebound and score usually most nights he is our third or second best player .

[Fafnir]

Whether you call it strength or weight, when matched up against many PFs in the league Sully can bully them around the hoop either in the post or while rebounding. He's able to overpower them, he can't do that when C's guard him nearly as often.

[kozlodoev]

Whether you call it strength or weight, when matched up against many PFs in the league Sully can bully them around the hoop either in the post or while rebounding. He's able to overpower them, he can't do that when C's guard him nearly as often.

I don't think there's any actual evidence for this. From what I've seen, Sullinger's offensive "game" has now become exclusively limited to spinning around his own butt a couple of times and invariably settling for a contested fade-away, which most players with sufficient length and athleticism for the PF/C position have no problem challenging.

[jpotter33]

Sully has strength advantage over many PFs

I call BS, your aware that he only did 9 reps of 185 right in his combine and MS did over 20?  I think him being strong is a myth.  He has some weight which he uses to push people around.

He has great hands, but he is a very skilled and very flawed player.  Great rebounder, decent post player, all over the place long range shooter (preseason he was lights out) and mediocre defender.   He is tweener, SF height, and not very athletic amd struggles against length.   Despite all of this he finds a way to rebound and score usually most nights he is our third or second best player .

That is an absurd claim, and you're equating two different types of strength.  First off, what in the world would BP have anything to do with basketball? It really only matters in football. Secondly, that type of strength with lower amounts of weight for more reps is a muscular endurance strength, which obviously won't be Sully's greatest asset.  I can almost guarantee you that Sully will have a higher ORM  BP than Smart. Lastly,basketball strength is primarily in the hips and lower body areas where one can position himself to move other players out of the way.  Let's put Smart and Sully on a squat machine or leg press and sees who's stronger.  Bench press doesn't mean Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. when talking about basketball strength, because it doesn't even matter for basketball other than talking about strength endurance.

[kozlodoev]

Bench press doesn't mean **** when talking about basketball strength, because it doesn't even matter for basketball other than talking about strength endurance.

Let's not swing into the other extreme. Upper body strength is fairly important for finishing through contact.

[D.o.s.]

Now i'm not saying Sully has All-Star potential, but surely he is better than he's being utilized right? I get the feeling that Brad Stevens is so invested in the 3 pointer that he wouldn't know what to do with a Zach Randolph type, is he only into stretch 4s?

Thoughts on how Sully is being utilized by Stevens? Should we be seeing more Sully post ups?

I think the league in general is moving towards stretch 4's -- the Lakers are 0-4 in part because Byron Scott is acting like a lot of Celtics Bloggers and insisting that his team play an outdated, archaic brand of basketball.

If Sullinger really couldn't shoot the three, I don't think he'd be asked to: Bass has only taken two of them, after all.

[LarBrd33]

Said it before... I legitimately don't understand the "Sully is potential allstar" narrative that some Boston fans seem to believe.

Last year he averaged 13 points, 8 rebounds on a dismal 43% shooting.  That's ok.  He's ok.  He's a solid player who is either going to be a long-term role player or maybe a long-term starter.  I don't get where this idea comes from that he's going to be a star player.  He's not terribly athletic.  He's not that big.  He's always out of shape.  He's got a history of injury trouble.  He's not that quick.  He's got an ok skill set.  Ok rebounder.  I'm still not even sure if he's a full-time starter.  I could see him losing the starting PF role to a couple guys already on the team (Bass or Oly).

So far this year he's averaging 13.7 points, 6.7 rebounds on 44% shooting.  Pretty similar to last year.  Still waiting to see if he'll show major improvement.  I said last year that someone outside of Boston would probably have trouble distinguishing the trade value between Jared Sullinger and Terrence Jones.  Both a couple young bigs picked in the same draft with similar statistical output.   I think right now JOnes has an edge over Sully in terms of productivity and trade value.  Curious... do people here think Jones is a future all-star too?

[kozlodoev]

If Sullinger really couldn't shoot the three, I don't think he'd be asked to: Bass has only taken two of them, after all.

There's nothing that indicates, so far, that he CAN shoot the three. That Stevens encourages this disaster is a clearly poor coaching decision -- it shows the coach either doesn't have a clue, doesn't care, or listens too much to Satch Sullinger.

In fact, I think Bass could probably be the better three-point shooter of the two.

[BudweiserCeltic]

If Sullinger really couldn't shoot the three, I don't think he'd be asked to: Bass has only taken two of them, after all.

There's nothing that indicates, so far, that he CAN shoot the three. That Stevens encourages this disaster is a clearly poor coaching decision -- it shows the coach either doesn't have a clue, doesn't care, or listens too much to Satch Sullinger.

In fact, I think Bass could probably be the better three-point shooter of the two.

There's plenty to indicate, so far, that he CAN shoot the three. That he's yet to find success with it during the regular season is another matter entirely, but not enough for me to discourage the attempt yet.