For so long people on this forum have argued that Celtics fans have been too hard on Sully, and been unfairly judgemental towards him in regards to his red flags (conditioning, poor shot selection, inconsistent effort).
I think that Sully's willingness to settle for 1 year at ~$5m (at a time where Evan Turner just got $17m a year) is very strong evidence that this is not the case.
Sully is far more talented then guys like Mosgov, Tristan Thompson and even the current day version of Joakhim Noah - yet those guys got in excess of 3x the money Sully did on the free agent market.
Sully is a talented player with a lot of skill and a lot of potential, but his red flags are real and they are significant. I'm a big guy myself, so I am the last person who is going to be unfairly judgmental against somebody for his conditioning...and yet I do judge Sully for it.
Why?
Because Sully is a professional athlete, so I don't think it's unfair at all to judge him when he is making lifestyle choices that directly impact his ability to be productive in his occupation.
I understand that it's hard to break a habit and hard to change a lifestyle. It's not something you can do overnight. Sully spent four years in Boston. He has had four years working in an organisation where he is surrounded by guys who are fitness freaks, where he has had access to the highest grade of personal trainers and where he has had access to the best dieticians. He's had access to the best training facilities and doctors.
He's made about $6m over those four years - more then enough income to allow the man to hire his own personal chef to prepare healthy meals for him every day. More then enough income to allow him to build his own personal gymnasium inside his home, so that he can work out in the comfort of his own home if it is too hot / cold outside, or if he's simply too lazy to leave the house.
I understand not all NBA athletes are going to have the physique of a Ray Allen, or Dwight Howard, or Lebron James, or Rajon Rondo. I get that you're going to have guys like Paul Pierce - guys who don't really have a "pro athlete" look to them.
What I don't get is how ANY a 24 year old professional athlete could ever allow themselves to drop to the level of physical conditioning Sully has been at for the past 2-3 years...and the worst part of it all is that it seems like he is getting worse! In college his conditioning was raised as a concern, but he was FAR trimmer then he is now. In fact if he looked right now the way he did in college, I'd have been all for throwing the money at him.
Sully is a very, very talented player. At 6'9" his optimal BMI would, in theory, be around 235 pounds (think - Antonio Davis). Sully is an inside guy who depends on his weight, so I don't expect him to be anywhere near that figure. If he could get his weight down to around 240-250 pounds, then he would be a monster. I seriously think he would have the potential to be an All-Star and to put up numbers not far off 20 and 12. If he could even keep the weight at 260 pounds (which is still too much for a PF, but whatever) I think even at that playing weight he'd be able to play a consistent 32-33 MPG while averaging 16 and 9 or similar.
But there have been reports traight from Danny's and Sully's mouths confirming that Sully has, on numerous occasions, been at a playing weight that hovered around the 300 pound mark...and that's in the middle of the season, when guys should be at peak condition.
I loved Sully when we got him. The things he did as a rookie - I saw so much future there. I thought maybe one day he could become a Kevin Love caliber player. The sad part is that if he took better care of his body, he almost certainly could be.
I wish him well for his career and I hope he gets his priorities in order...but I'm not all that sad to see him go.
Topic: Sullinger to the Raptors? (EDIT: Confirmed by Woj/1-yr deal) (Read 17020 times)