Where's the love for Sullinger?

[nickagneta]

Throughout this recent summer and preseason all the talk about the Celtics frontcourt was about how Stevens had decided that Jared Sullinger was the odd man out and that Sully was still out of shape and fat. The disdain for Jared Sullinger on this site rose to heights for a player not seen since just after Rondo was shipped out of town and admitted he hadn't played defense in a couple years.

But Sully did nothing but say he had worked hard all off season. He said nothing when it looked like in pre season he had been dubbed the odd man out of the rotation. He was been a consummate team guy thus far. Most on this site had decided Sully would be gone by the trading deadline.

Now, after 10% of the season gone, Jared Sullinger is this team's starting C/PF, he is easily performing at the best level on a per minute level in his career, he hasn't looked lazy or winded, and yet, when good things are said about how this team is performing, a quick scan of the Celtics Talk area of this site has people talking about RJ Hunter, Jordan Mickey, IT, KO, Smart, etc but little about the great impact and tremendous play of 23 year old Jared Sullinger.

Sully is averaging 17.5/13.5 per 36 minutes. He is easily the team's best rebounder. His defense is markedly better than in the past. He is playing excellent and efficient offensive basketball and just keeps showing people that the C's frontcourt rotation should be a three man rotation of him, KO and Amir. They have shown they deserve the minutes.

So for all the not so positive stuff that everyone said about Sully this past 4-5 months, how about showing this kid some love. He has played fabulously and deserves some praise

[Hemingway]

Throughout this recent summer and preseason all the talk about the Celtics frontcourt was about how Stevens had decided that Jared Sullinger was the odd man out and that Sully was still out of shape and fat. The disdain for Jared Sullinger on this site rose to heights for a player not seen since just after Rondo was shipped out of town and admitted he hadn't played defense in a couple years.

But Sully did nothing but say he had worked hard all off season. He said nothing when it looked like in pre season he had been dubbed the odd man out of the rotation. He was been a consummate team guy thus far. Most on this site had decided Sully would be gone by the trading deadline.

Now, after 10% of the season gone, Jared Sullinger is this team's starting C/PF, he is easily performing at the best level on a per minute level in his career, he hasn't looked lazy or winded, and yet, when good things are said about how this team is performing, a quick scan of the Celtics Talk area of this site has people talking about RJ Hunter, Jordan Mickey, IT, KO, Smart, etc but little about the great impact and tremendous play of 23 year old Jared Sullinger.

Sully is averaging 17.5/13.5 per 36 minutes. He is easily the team's best rebounder. His defense is markedly better than in the past. He is playing excellent and efficient offensive basketball and just keeps showing people that the C's frontcourt rotation should be a three man rotation of him, KO and Amir. They have shown they deserve the minutes.

So for all the not so positive stuff that everyone said about Sully this past 4-5 months, how about showing this kid some love. He has played fabulously and deserves some praise

stop spreading lies.

[KGs Knee]

Yeah, I had mostly written off Sully this summer.  I have been tired of his effort on the court sometimes, his shooting selection last year (even though it was somewhat at the order of the coach) and his lack of dedication to getting himself in the best shape (conditioning wise-not necessarily weight).  I'm still not 100% sold on him long-term, but he has played well so far this year.

I still believe Sully has the most potential of any big man on our roster, I just am not sure if he will ever truly reach it (consistently).  I hope he does though.

[KeepRondo]

I'm glad to see him busting his butt out there but I'm not surprised by his play. Just hoping like most others that he can maintain this level of effort.

[Hemingway]

as for the topic at hand, I have a lot of love for Sully right now. He shut me up. maybe all those out of shape comments and stories were over blown due to the slow offseason. He has been our best player so far. That said, I'm still hesitant to give him big money long term. Marc Blount looked good for a little while too... ok thats a bad comparison as Blount was a smuck but given Sully's track record here and work ethic over the years I'm looking at his great recent play as great in that in elevates his trade value. He very well may prove me wrong as Tony Allen did. But the safe move would be to trade him if we can get something good. Sorry Sully, I really do like what you have done so far this year for us.

[SHAQATTACK]

Where's the beef

Sully got beef and game too.

He has starting NBA skill and IQ .....even if he is big and tad slow. He is very graceful for a huge person.

He could have the biggest future of any Celtic .....but he is his own worst enemy .......laziness and food.

He needs any activities but eating and drinking calorie rich food  ......and not sitting around playing video games eating pizza .

[Nerf DPOY]

I think part of the skepticism surrounding Sully is after talking the talk all summer, he arrived at camp still shaped like Grimace. He's definitely been the most pleasant surprise on the team so far while at the same time I and I imagine a lot of us here knew he had this ability in him. Now the question remains what Sully will be like once he gets his RFA pay day. Do you trust him? But in the meantime I'm enjoying Super Motivated-Sully.

[Evantime34]

Sullinger has been by far our best big this season. He has been our best rebounder, our best post defender and inexplicably our best 3 point shooting big.

Due to our depth he has only been playing 23 minutes a game. Every year Sullinger has gotten injured, hopefully a lessened minutes load will allow him to stay healthy.

His injury history makes me really nervous about signing him to a new contract after the season. Honestly if he keeps playing like this I think he will end up being a major trade chip for us at the deadline.

[nickagneta]

For clarification, I am not ready to throw money at Sully though I know some team will.  Before that happens I need to see more from him this year, more from him in the time after the C's stop playing and the July signing period starts to see if he remains in shape and dedicated to his physical upkeep, and see where exactly all our draft picks end up and who the front office selects.

I doubt I would trade him unless it's in a package for a young star. I am not a believer in the "ship him out to make playing time for others" philosophy that some on this site have. If the Celtics are trading him at the deadline it's because a better player is coming our way, that's the only Sully trade at the deadline I want to see

[chambers]

Not too many of us were sticking up for Sullinger. I've defended him to the death as one of the bright spots of these development years since KG + PP left.

It was astonishing to see how many people had written him off as the 3rd or 4th big off the bench.
He always had better numbers than Lee, Zeller and Olynyk and it made zero sense.
Even while he was putting in work with Lucas and being fat shamed, I thought it was pretty insulting to be thrown into the 'let's move on with this draft experiment and trade him for a bag of donuts' rhetoric- considering he was one of our top 2/3 players over the past 3 seasons and his per 36 numbers suggested elite power forward potential.

The guy is simply a basketball player. Great hands, awareness, anticipation. Jumpshot looks good, great mechanics.
I think he's lost at least 25 pounds- I guess alot of the work with Lucas and in training camp is only starting to drip off now so he could get a bit more slimmer.

Putting him next to Amir is perfect. Remember how good he was when he was on the floor with KG? Getting a decent defensive wingman in the paint, having Crowder, Smart and Bradley as the frontline bulldogs has taken pressure off him defensively and let him go and grab rebounds- which he is elite at. Having Lee and Amir here has given him motivation.
The contract year is also huge motivation.
Sully just looks more ethusiastic this year- he's finally been challenged by other very good basketball players to take his minutes from him and he's responded perfectly.
I'll keep bragging and say I thought this was a specific strategy of Danny and Brad's to see what he had in him and put the ball in his court- so to speak.

Biggest question now is:
Is that back going to hold up for the season?
He's lost weight and is playing slightly less minutes but we still don't know.

I would hope for our sake and Sully's that any extension talks we have will involve weight clauses and bonuses. These will keep him motivated to push himself- some guys just need those challenges to excel.

Anyway, I'm really happy for him and I just hope as OP suggests, that he gets the credit and respect he deserves for his hard work.

[celtic -_- pride]

Throughout this recent summer and preseason all the talk about the Celtics frontcourt was about how Stevens had decided that Jared Sullinger was the odd man out and that Sully was still out of shape and fat. The disdain for Jared Sullinger on this site rose to heights for a player not seen since just after Rondo was shipped out of town and admitted he hadn't played defense in a couple years.

But Sully did nothing but say he had worked hard all off season. He said nothing when it looked like in pre season he had been dubbed the odd man out of the rotation. He was been a consummate team guy thus far. Most on this site had decided Sully would be gone by the trading deadline.

Now, after 10% of the season gone, Jared Sullinger is this team's starting C/PF, he is easily performing at the best level on a per minute level in his career, he hasn't looked lazy or winded, and yet, when good things are said about how this team is performing, a quick scan of the Celtics Talk area of this site has people talking about RJ Hunter, Jordan Mickey, IT, KO, Smart, etc but little about the great impact and tremendous play of 23 year old Jared Sullinger.

Sully is averaging 17.5/13.5 per 36 minutes. He is easily the team's best rebounder. His defense is markedly better than in the past. He is playing excellent and efficient offensive basketball and just keeps showing people that the C's frontcourt rotation should be a three man rotation of him, KO and Amir. They have shown they deserve the minutes.

So for all the not so positive stuff that everyone said about Sully this past 4-5 months, how about showing this kid some love. He has played fabulously and deserves some praise

I was with you until you used the word fabulously.

[Boris Badenov]

I think the time has come to see what he can do in 30-32 minutes per game. Can he sustain his play? Can he avoid injury or fatigue?

I mean, I think we know what we have with KO, Lee, Amir and Zeller. If the Sully experiment doesn't work then we go back to the status quo as of now.

But if Sully can bump up his minutes and be this productive he's a borderline All-Star. It's time to figure out the answer to that question.

[Evantime34]

For clarification, I am not ready to throw money at Sully though I know some team will.  Before that happens I need to see more from him this year, more from him in the time after the C's stop playing and the July signing period starts to see if he remains in shape and dedicated to his physical upkeep, and see where exactly all our draft picks end up and who the front office selects.

I doubt I would trade him unless it's in a package for a young star. I am not a believer in the "ship him out to make playing time for others" philosophy that some on this site have. If the Celtics are trading him at the deadline it's because a better player is coming our way, that's the only Sully trade at the deadline I want to see

That is the trade I would prefer. However, if due to exploratory contract talks Danny thinks that Sullinger won't be on the team next year, trading him now is probably a good idea. Detroit would be a lot better had they dealt Monroe before he hit restricted free agency.

[Hemingway]

For clarification, I am not ready to throw money at Sully though I know some team will.  Before that happens I need to see more from him this year, more from him in the time after the C's stop playing and the July signing period starts to see if he remains in shape and dedicated to his physical upkeep, and see where exactly all our draft picks end up and who the front office selects.

I doubt I would trade him unless it's in a package for a young star. I am not a believer in the "ship him out to make playing time for others" philosophy that some on this site have. If the Celtics are trading him at the deadline it's because a better player is coming our way, that's the only Sully trade at the deadline I want to see

totally agree

[fairweatherfan]

Sully's stepped up and is playing very hard but I have a hard time separating that from the fact that it's a contract year for him.  I suspect his bad habits will come back again once he's signed a deal. 

Still, helping us win is helping us win and he's definitely doing that.  So I'm glad to see it.