sully lookin too good

[Kaz]

I haven't seen any reporting on this but I have to think that Sully and his agent told Ainge they were not interested in a Zeller-type deal where he would essentially be a trade chip fighting KO for minutes off the bench.

Mike

He had signed the qualifying offer.  Boston didn't have to do anything else.  Boston let him go.  So he didn't have to sign a Zeller type deal, Boston could have just kept him on the QO and waited to see if another team made a better offer and then decided what to do.  That is the problem I have with not bringing him back.

Eh, even at that low cost, it might not make sense to keep him with how many bigs we already have. That would've then put us at 6 bigs that could deserve some sort of minutes - Horford, Amir, KO, JJ, Sully, and Zeller. I believe Brad just wants that four man group of Horford, Amir, KO, and JJ to take the majority of the big minutes, let alone when we go small with Crowder at 4, so keeping Sully even at that low cost might not have been beneficial and could have only led to locker room/playing time issues.

FWIW if the Celtics had resigned Sully I doubt Zeller would be back. 
However, unlike Zeller I think Sully does enough to warrant relevant playing time, so I agree, probably not a good fit here with Horford.

[CelticPride2016]

the problem is you can't sign him to anything long term even if he produces all this year
-how could a GM feel safe
-i like sully but he now plays for a rival to our position for playoffs
'll root for toronto only when they play the nets or a team that is in competition for last place-

You should have held your ground. If Sully really lost forty pounds for the new team, that was a betrayal and treasonous.

[MBunge]

I haven't seen any reporting on this but I have to think that Sully and his agent told Ainge they were not interested in a Zeller-type deal where he would essentially be a trade chip fighting KO for minutes off the bench.

Mike

He had signed the qualifying offer.  Boston didn't have to do anything else.  Boston let him go.  So he didn't have to sign a Zeller type deal, Boston could have just kept him on the QO and waited to see if another team made a better offer and then decided what to do.  That is the problem I have with not bringing him back.

A player who accepts the qualifying offer cannot be traded without their consent.  So, keeping Sully would have meant losing Zeller as a player AND losing the trade value of that contract.  As I said, no one has reported this but I would be very surprised if Ainge would've let Sully go if he had been willing to take the Zeller deal.

Mike

[Moranis]

I haven't seen any reporting on this but I have to think that Sully and his agent told Ainge they were not interested in a Zeller-type deal where he would essentially be a trade chip fighting KO for minutes off the bench.

Mike

He had signed the qualifying offer.  Boston didn't have to do anything else.  Boston let him go.  So he didn't have to sign a Zeller type deal, Boston could have just kept him on the QO and waited to see if another team made a better offer and then decided what to do.  That is the problem I have with not bringing him back.

Eh, even at that low cost, it might not make sense to keep him with how many bigs we already have. That would've then put us at 6 bigs that could deserve some sort of minutes - Horford, Amir, KO, JJ, Sully, and Zeller. I believe Brad just wants that four man group of Horford, Amir, KO, and JJ to take the majority of the big minutes, let alone when we go small with Crowder at 4, so keeping Sully even at that low cost might not have been beneficial and could have only led to locker room/playing time issues.

Sullinger is a better rebounder and low post scorer than everyone single one of those guys.  Those skills might just come in handy against you know basically every team in the league. 

[Big333223]

The way I see it, moving to a new place helps with this kind of lifetsyle change, so if he had stayed there's no guarentee he'd have lost this much weight. On top of that, if this change helps him and he looks really good this season, I still would worry about giving him a big contract for 4 years. Did he finally get into shape because now he's comitted to basketball or because now he can see exactly how much money he lost this offseason?

I like his game and his talent and I wish he had gotten it together for us but he never did. I'm fine with letting him walk.

[Moranis]

I haven't seen any reporting on this but I have to think that Sully and his agent told Ainge they were not interested in a Zeller-type deal where he would essentially be a trade chip fighting KO for minutes off the bench.

Mike

He had signed the qualifying offer.  Boston didn't have to do anything else.  Boston let him go.  So he didn't have to sign a Zeller type deal, Boston could have just kept him on the QO and waited to see if another team made a better offer and then decided what to do.  That is the problem I have with not bringing him back.

A player who accepts the qualifying offer cannot be traded without their consent.  So, keeping Sully would have meant losing Zeller as a player AND losing the trade value of that contract.  As I said, no one has reported this but I would be very surprised if Ainge would've let Sully go if he had been willing to take the Zeller deal.

Mike

No reason to trade Sullinger though.  He after all would have been starting next to Horford.  And with a guy that can actually play, both Johnson and Jerekbo become far more expendable (unlike Zeller who is essentially worthless aside from his contract).

[GratefulCs]

The way I see it, moving to a new place helps with this kind of lifetsyle change, so if he had stayed there's no guarentee he'd have lost this much weight. On top of that, if this change helps him and he looks really good this season, I still would worry about giving him a big contract for 4 years. Did he finally get into shape because now he's comitted to basketball or because now he can see exactly how much money he lost this offseason?

I like his game and his talent and I wish he had gotten it together for us but he never did. I'm fine with letting him walk.

that's exactly how i feel. TP


If we kept him, he might have stayed the same.


I'll miss sully, but i'm very happy where we are

[Hank Finkel]

Where is the picture....before and after.   There is no way Sully lost 40lbs this summer.  Its all a big hype for Sullly and his new team and season. I call bs.....

[MJohnnyboy]

I haven't seen any reporting on this but I have to think that Sully and his agent told Ainge they were not interested in a Zeller-type deal where he would essentially be a trade chip fighting KO for minutes off the bench.

Mike

He had signed the qualifying offer.  Boston didn't have to do anything else.  Boston let him go.  So he didn't have to sign a Zeller type deal, Boston could have just kept him on the QO and waited to see if another team made a better offer and then decided what to do.  That is the problem I have with not bringing him back.

Eh, even at that low cost, it might not make sense to keep him with how many bigs we already have. That would've then put us at 6 bigs that could deserve some sort of minutes - Horford, Amir, KO, JJ, Sully, and Zeller. I believe Brad just wants that four man group of Horford, Amir, KO, and JJ to take the majority of the big minutes, let alone when we go small with Crowder at 4, so keeping Sully even at that low cost might not have been beneficial and could have only led to locker room/playing time issues.

Sullinger is a better rebounder and low post scorer than everyone single one of those guys.  Those skills might just come in handy against you know basically every team in the league.

Yeah, like in the playoffs? Remember how much Sully was just murdering the Hawks? He was so good that Brad opted not to play him simply because he didn't want Atlanta to be embarrassed.

[2short]

I always noticed when he gave a hard foul as the easy thing to do instead of moving his feet and hustling on defense.  He has what it takes but JJ made him look very expendable in the playoffs last year.  Add in a healthy johnson, kelly, horford ehhh

[BlackCeltic]

I saw the game and he doesn't look slimmer at all.

[Celtics4ever]

I think he lost some weight but the real question is can he maintain away from the trainers he had this summer.   He still can rebound, he has 10 as for the looking good, he still shot  poorly at .33% from the field and 0-3 from three point land.

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/6624/jared-sullinger

[Moranis]

I haven't seen any reporting on this but I have to think that Sully and his agent told Ainge they were not interested in a Zeller-type deal where he would essentially be a trade chip fighting KO for minutes off the bench.

Mike

He had signed the qualifying offer.  Boston didn't have to do anything else.  Boston let him go.  So he didn't have to sign a Zeller type deal, Boston could have just kept him on the QO and waited to see if another team made a better offer and then decided what to do.  That is the problem I have with not bringing him back.

Eh, even at that low cost, it might not make sense to keep him with how many bigs we already have. That would've then put us at 6 bigs that could deserve some sort of minutes - Horford, Amir, KO, JJ, Sully, and Zeller. I believe Brad just wants that four man group of Horford, Amir, KO, and JJ to take the majority of the big minutes, let alone when we go small with Crowder at 4, so keeping Sully even at that low cost might not have been beneficial and could have only led to locker room/playing time issues.

Sullinger is a better rebounder and low post scorer than everyone single one of those guys.  Those skills might just come in handy against you know basically every team in the league.

Yeah, like in the playoffs? Remember how much Sully was just murdering the Hawks? He was so good that Brad opted not to play him simply because he didn't want Atlanta to be embarrassed.

Did you watch the series, everyone was terrible.  I mean Crowder shot under 28% from the field and if you think that was bad, Olynyk was 11.1%.  Thomas, Turner, and Smart were all also under 40% (like Sulinger). 

Sullinger was still the best rebounder of all the regular rotation players in the playoffs, both by per minute production and rebound percentage.  He also only shot 4 threes all playoffs, making 2 of them, so he wasn't killing the team from there like he had at times during the season and like Crowder did during the series, you know by shooting 41 threes and only making 10 of them (nothing like a 24.4% to really win you a series).  heck even Bradley in his one game was 1 of 7 from three.

I get it, Sullinger isn't here anymore so it is ok to act like he lost the series against the Hawks, but that is just revisionist history.  Only Johnson and Jerekbo performed any where near their season averages (though even JJ was under 32% from three).  It was a terrible series from every single member of the Boston Celtics.  Sullinger wasn't any worse than anyone else.

[Bobshot]

sully is running and rebounding-we are going to miss the in shape sully
-he is grabbing all the boards and backed down defender getting separation and hit the fall away-vintage sully

That is what he provided for Boston and Boston will clearly miss it.  No one on the team right now is as good a rebounder or low post scorer as Sullinger.  Can't believe we let him go for what he ended up signing for.  Real mistake.  Should have gone with him over Zeller without question.

He got in the doghouse here for conditioning issues. But they will surely miss him up front. Horford and Johnson are about all they have. Those other two 7 footers are useless for rebounding/defending.

[dreamgreen]

I'm glad Sully is gone, I couldn't watch that fat Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. anymore! He's not going to put up 15-20! I read the other day that people are saying the C's were going to want  weight clause in the contract with Sully and his camp wasn't really feeling it.