Sully

[Cman]

I'd guess we let Sully walk at the end of the season.  He really hasn't proven much of anything.  His inability to get in shape is a problem.  There's been signs of attitude problems.  And really when you look at his stats, it's nothing to get excited about:  10.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 0.6 blocks, 0.9 steals, 43%/28%/64%

He shoots a poor percentage and isn't a great defender.  He's also shown little-to-no improvement over the past 3 seasons.  He's 24 years old now.  He's a decent rebounder and plays some quality minutes, but I sincerely doubt the team sees him as a long-term solution as a starter.

I wouldn't rule out us giving him the qualifying offer, but we'll actually need to renounce him if we intend to use double-max cap space this Summer.  Just our guaranteed contracts + cap holds for our three 1st rounders alone pushes us to 41 million in salary.  That leaves about 50 mil in cap space (each max contract would be 25 mil).   That would require us to renounce Sully, Turner, Jerebko and Zeller.  Yeah, I get that it's unlikely we'll use double-max cap space.  I'm not entirely opposed to giving Sully the QO simply because he might have some trade value.    But I'm fully prepared to see us let him walk.

A lot here that I agree with.
Basically, I don't dislike Sully, but I don't think he brings enough to the table for the Cs right now for the Cs to resign him over the summer. The cap space (and roster space) that he'd take is better spent on high end FAs, if we can nab any, otherwise the roster space is better devoted to developing a tradeable asset (ie, one of the bazzillion draft picks we've had over last year and this upcoming year).

[CoachBo]

Agreed. Not interested in resigning him.

[Celtics4ever]

I disagree with the notion that Sully doesn't care. I think he genuinely tried to get in better shape last summer, but just could not cut down the calories. On the court, everybody loves intense, hard-nosed players like Crowder, Smart, Bradley, and Amir, but that doesn't mean a guy like Sully doesn't care. He is fundamentally one of the best players at boxing out in the league. He is also a very solid passer and has a decent, yet unspectacular post game.

Sully may not fit what we are trying to do here under Stevens and he certainly needs to drop 40+ pounds, but I do think he cares and is frustrated by how he is playing. Unfortunately I believe he has resigned himself to the fact that he just isn't going to play well. If you recall, though, he was actually quite effective last year vs the Cavs - especially impressive since he was just returning from injury.

One would think that if he cared he would have got better results.   WATCH HIS D in last few minutes of the third, and see if you can still say that he cares.   The HAWKS went on a 14-2 run in the 3:20 Minutes he was in there.  It is really at the point where he is a greater liability than asset on the court.   

One reason, he played well against CLE is Mozgov is slow and plodding,   Horford and Milsap are active and mobile.  He also was out for a large part of the season and got some rest due to eating himself into a foot injury.   He has a stress fracture, he went out, we got IT and some other guys and went on a nice run of wins.   We could run without him, too and play more uptempo instead of half court, hippo ball.   He came into the series fresh and rested.  But you should not laud it as a victory because his weight and conditioning caused this scenario to begin with.   One could argue that him coming back hurt our team chemistry as well.   He did play well that series but most of the team did not.

At some point, DA has to take a look and see that he can't maintain his conditioning not enough to play a full season.   He always gains weight during the season.   This makes him unreliable to build around.   His work this summer allowed him only to miss one game this season but his play faded as the year went on.

I did not see a lot of care in the last game in his 11 minutes of play.  I saw a guy who wants to go home to be on vacation this summer.     He had a complete lack of effort in the last few minutes of the third.   He is not stay in front of his man, often he would not even put his hand up on D.  We won despite him.  The other team attacks him with vigor and impunity on D.   Part of me, thinks he won't resign here anyway ( which would be a relief to me) and wants to go play in Ohio in CLE.

Quote
Sullinger is certainly an enigma.  He has ability, touch, and a high level of feel for the game for a big.  But every season, he has essentially faded to nothingness.  This season he avoided injury and missing games but as the season wore on, he just seemed to fade.  At this point, he has nothing left

I call BS on the touch, he is great at tap ins but shooting wise he is a bad shooter for a PF.

Career .44% FG shooting.   Not bad for guard but poor for a big man.
Career .27% three point shooter.   He has got more stretch marks than spread the floor.

http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/203096/

I agree with the rest of your comments.  But his shooting touch, is poor.   Ainge needs to get better at drafting guys who can shoot.   Marcus is suspect, Hunter is suspect at shooting and Jared is suspect.

[Celtics17]

Sully is one significant injury away from being a disaster if he's resigned. I know any player can fit this but Sullinger is never in shape and his weight just adds to the potential problems he may encounter. I just can't see Ainge resigning him. Ainge seems to go after high risk, high reward guys but we have had Sullinger now for three years and I dont think he has ever shown the ability to be high reward.

[greece66]

Was that as bad an eleven minutes as could be?

Looked like a traffic cop waving drivers down the lane

[nickagneta]

I think its time to move on from Sully. He has shown for the second year in a row that he gets into worse physical condition as the season rolls along. He appears to have gotten bigger and slower as the season progressed. He has skills this team needs but he also has glaring faults that make giving him another contract a large risk. Let someone else pay for his stats. replace him with someone better.

On a side note, I am also ready to move on from Kelly Olynyk. His inconsistencies, his lack of aggression, his poor defense from the point of view of the eye test(yeah I know he is an advanced stats darling on the defensive end but I just don't trust advanced defensive stats, I find them way, way too noisy and dependent on team performance rather than individual), poor rebounding and his injury proneness tell me he just isn't someone I want around here. I guess we could have another year of KO, at least, but I would be fine with moving on from him now.

[greece66]

I'd guess we let Sully walk at the end of the season.  He really hasn't proven much of anything.  His inability to get in shape is a problem.  There's been signs of attitude problems.  And really when you look at his stats, it's nothing to get excited about:  10.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 0.6 blocks, 0.9 steals, 43%/28%/64%

He shoots a poor percentage and isn't a great defender.  He's also shown little-to-no improvement over the past 3 seasons.  He's 24 years old now.  He's a decent rebounder and plays some quality minutes, but I sincerely doubt the team sees him as a long-term solution as a starter.

I wouldn't rule out us giving him the qualifying offer, but we'll actually need to renounce him if we intend to use double-max cap space this Summer.  Just our guaranteed contracts + cap holds for our three 1st rounders alone pushes us to 41 million in salary.  That leaves about 50 mil in cap space (each max contract would be 25 mil).   That would require us to renounce Sully, Turner, Jerebko and Zeller.  Yeah, I get that it's unlikely we'll use double-max cap space.  I'm not entirely opposed to giving Sully the QO simply because he might have some trade value.    But I'm fully prepared to see us let him walk.

^this. unfortunately.

a few months ago he seemed close to becoming a double double power forward. but towards the end of the season his performance declined drastically; he had his opportunity to step up in the playoffs and so far he has missed it. Actually, his failings at the 4, remind me of Brandon Bass's poor performance last year against the Cavs. (key difference being that Bass failed despite trying hard, whereas Sully seems to be somehow out of tune.)

it looks like the C's are ready to pass on Sully; and he too might need a change of scenery.

[rondohondo]

Another crap game for Sully , it's a shame we have no other options with KO being soft as hell / hurting

Amir and Jerebko playing much better than either .

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

other bigs play better than him now like Aj, KO, JJ etc. was hoping he was a keeper. Doubt he is here next year.

[nickagneta]

Another crap game for Sully , it's a shame we have no other options with KO being soft as hell / hurting

Amir and Jerebko playing much better than either .

Sully wasnt that bad tonight. Millsap actually went cold there for a while in the third when Sully was on him, after Millsap just destroyed Johnson and Jerebko to end the 1st half and start the thrid quarter.

I wouldn't say Sully did anything great but I didn't think he was so bad tonight either

[SHAQATTACK]

Part of the problem is Sully just is terrible past 15 ft jumpers .  And CBS is still trying to spread the floor with him....

Sully just is not a spread the floor player .

Sully is a bulldozer and should be played as such.

Sully jacking threes is so awful to watch.

There is no reason he can't be effective against the Hawks .....if he is made to play closer in where he can use his mass .

[trickybilly]

He would be an interesting prospect to someone though, and you get sign and trade flexibility to make salaries work as part of a splashy deal.

[Jon]

The crazy part is that it's conceivable that all of our bigs won't be back next year except for Mickey.

[CoachBo]

I think its time to move on from Sully. He has shown for the second year in a row that he gets into worse physical condition as the season rolls along. He appears to have gotten bigger and slower as the season progressed. He has skills this team needs but he also has glaring faults that make giving him another contract a large risk. Let someone else pay for his stats. replace him with someone better.

On a side note, I am also ready to move on from Kelly Olynyk. His inconsistencies, his lack of aggression, his poor defense from the point of view of the eye test(yeah I know he is an advanced stats darling on the defensive end but I just don't trust advanced defensive stats, I find them way, way too noisy and dependent on team performance rather than individual), poor rebounding and his injury proneness tell me he just isn't someone I want around here. I guess we could have another year of KO, at least, but I would be fine with moving on from him now.

TP.

Advanced defensive metrics are the biggest pile of garbage of the largely meaningless sabremetric collection for this sport.

The difference between Kelly and Sullinger is that we can watch 7 walk - which is exactly what we should do. There are better places for that money.

[Drucci]

Sullinger was the worst Celtic on the court in Game 4 and he even managed to play worse than he had before. Whenever we were up by 5-7 points and Sullinger would check in, we would lose our lead in a span of 1 minute because he either forced bad shots or passes and was useless on defense.