Sully says "the gang's all in"

Rookie Sullinger says the gang's all in





September, 27, 2012
Sep 27
5:41
PM ET



By Greg Payne | ESPNBoston.com






BOSTON -- Celtics rookie Jared Sullinger
got his first real dose of live action with his veteran teammates last
week in Los Angeles during a series of team scrimmages organized by Rajon Rondo.


"That was fun. We had great team bonding," Sullinger said prior to
taking a duck boat tour of Boston on Thursday. "Everybody went out.
Everybody had fun, played ball. We never saw nobody go one-on-one.
Everybody all went as a group. So, we just developed team chemistry."




Greg Payne/ESPNBoston.com

Jared Sullinger said the Celtics started to develop team chemistry during their recent practice sessions in California.
"That was fun. We had great team bonding. Everybody went out. Everybody had fun, played ball," he said.

That sense of camaraderie has stuck out to Sullinger ever
since he participated in two summer leagues this past July. While those
teams grew close over the two-week span in Orlando and Las Vegas,
Sullinger said he can tell a difference between those bonds and the
current ones developing between his teammates.


"I think summer league is more hectic. It's not as controlled,"
Sullinger explained. "Because everybody's out there fighting for a job.
Everybody wants to be signed. Everybody wants to try to make it to the
NBA. So it's a little more hectic. It's a little faster, got a little
more one-on-one. So you step in and you leave summer league behind you
and you've got your team. I think it's more team basketball, so it's not
much one-on-one."



Individual defensive assignments were handed out for the team
scrimmages last week, and even though their positions will overlap from
time to time, Sullinger didn't have to worry about guarding
Kevin Garnett.


"That was Fab [Melo]'s job," Sullinger said. "I think Fab did OK.
Fab did OK. We've got a lot of learning to do as rookies, so I think
that was a good stepping stone for Fab to play against KG and just me to
be able to be out there."



Even though he didn't go up against him directly, Garnett still made an impression on Boston's top rookie.



"Great guy. Great guy, great teammate," Sullinger said of Garnett.
"He's almost like a players' coach. I mean, he knows what he's talking
about, he handles his business, but it's going to be a lot of fun this
year."



Sullinger said improved conditioning was at the top of his offseason
wish list, and even though he hasn't lost much weight, he said he's in
"overall better shape, body-wise." Sullinger said he hasn't set any
goals for himself for the coming season, maintaining his stance that the
team -- and keeping head coach Doc Rivers happy -- comes first. He's
already on the right track with Rivers, who's a big proponent of
conditioning.



"Honestly, I've never been like that [setting personal goals]. I've
never been that type of basketball player," Sullinger said. "Everything I
had always goes towards the team. Whatever the team needs me to do, I'm
going to do it."




bob
My Note: I love, absolutely love, Sully saying that he didn't see any one-on-one play during the scrimmages, it was all team play. This is what I've been hungering for, this is it! Summer league doesn't show you that. I can't wait to see Doc's reactions when he starts scrimmaging and sees how far they've already come. More good news, Sully says he's in better shape, but hasn't lost weight. That won't necessarily make him more effective against height, but he'll still have his beef advantage and perhaps a little more speed. I'm taking what he said about Melo "doing ok" against KG with a grain of salt. I hope he's not just talking Melo up, but I'm withholding judgment until I see Melo actually play. I've heard too much about him from beat to start off too optimistic. This kid Sully always seems to say the right things, including how he doesn't set personal goals only team goals. God, I love coach's kids! Their heads are always screwed on right! Media Day tomorrow (tomorrow!) and 2-a-days on Saturday! We're a whisker away from ball!




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in the words of The Man, "Woooooo"

It's not difficult to envision a team loaded with full-fledged leaders a few years down the road. A very rare occurrence to say the least.

Sam

Another dump to an existing thread for now.

http://clnsradio.com/2012/10/03/jared-sullinger/

COLUMBIA, Md. – The Boston Celtics knew that Jared Sullinger had back issues when they made the power forward from Ohio State the 21st overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.

They didn’t know about his limp.

“[It’s like ] a boulder, I don’t know about a chip [on my shoulder].
Pretty heavy, makes me walk with a limp at times, but it’s all good,”
Sullinger said during the Celtics’ Media Day last week.

Fortunately for Boston, the boulder Sullinger carries is just a
metaphor. He’s not used to being slighted and his draft day slide will
serve as motivation for a player who could be the steal of the 2012 NBA
Draft.

CREAM OF THE CROP

Jared Sullinger is used to being the rock of his basketball team, the player everyone can lean on as he carries them to success.

After dominating the Big Ten and the rest of college basketball, the 2010-2011 USBWA Freshman of the Year
was projected as a potential top-5 pick. Once Kyrie Irving was taken
first, Sullinger could’ve been the second player chosen in the 2011 NBA
Draft.

He led the Big Ten in the following categories
— free throws (FT – 188), free throw attempts (FTA – 267), offensive
rebounds (ORB – 131), defensive rebounds (DRB – 246), total rebounds
(TRB – 377), total rebounding percentage (TRBP – 20.1%), defensive
rating (DRTG – 89.6 points allowed per 100 possessions), and player
efficiency rating (PER – 30.3).

But the Buckeyes season ended too early. Ohio State was ousted in the Sweet Sixteen by Kentucky in 2011.

Sullinger desperately wanted another shot at a national title even after he accomplished almost everything a player could in a single year, let alone a freshman campaign.

His encore performance might’ve been even better.

Once again, Sullinger led his conference in FTs, FTAs, and ORBs. He
scored more points in less minutes while amping up his defense. He
improved his free throw shooting by more than 6% and increased his
range.

No player in the Big Ten contributed more to his team on the
defensive end than Sullinger in 2011-2012. Those efforts resulted in 5.2
wins for Ohio State. When you factor in his offense, Sullinger
accounted for 9.3 win shares this past NCAAB season; tops in the Big Ten
and second only to No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis.

For his efforts, he was a 1st-team All-America selection for the second year in a row.

Historically, Sullinger’s two years at Ohio State are more impressive.

Since the 1998-1999 season, Sullinger posted the highest DRTG (87.7), secured the highest TRBP (19.17), and submitted the most efficient career (30.26 PER) in Big Ten history during his short time in Columbus.

Sullinger gave much of the credit to an assistant coach at Ohio State, Chris Jent, a former NBA player himself, who helped further develop Sullinger’s game.

“He told me what people [in the NBA] wanted to see and what they
didn’t want to see.” Sullinger said. “They want to see what kind of
weight I can stay at; being able to shoot the jump shot and being able
to guard for a long period of time.”

Although Kansas defeated Ohio State in the Final Four ending Sullinger’s season early once again, he left school early. But little did he know, his stock would plummet.

He wouldn’t be a top-5 pick. The two-time first-team All-American power forward and first to repeat as a freshman and sophomore in more than 20 years, missed the lottery entirely.

PRODUCTION OR POTENTIAL?

The numbers prove that he’s a great basketball player. He dominated
in a competitive conference known for tough, physical play. Sullinger
has the ability to score with his back to the basket and can face up
against defenders as well. On the glass, he has a knack for knowing
where to be and more importantly, understands how to use his body to
pull down plenty of rebounds.

However, he doesn’t have a typical body for the NBA game.
Not quite as tall as some of the better power forwards and not quite as
athletic nor agile either. In a league that favors a player’s potential
more than what they’ve proven on the court, I’m not sure what else
Sullinger could have done to show scouts and GMs that he’d be a worthy
top pick.




To see how his game will translate to the NBA, I picked two recent
players and one NBA veteran that had similar collegiate careers and
bodies to Sullinger. Tyler Hansbrough, DeJuan Blair, and Carlos Boozer.

All three are relatively undersized power forwards who won’t jump out of the gym or win many races against their NBA brethren.

Hansbrough probably had the career that most resembles Sullinger’s
first two years. The 6-9 250 pound power forward averaged 18.9 PPG and
7.9 RPG then 18.4 PPG and 7.8 RPG during his first two years at North
Carolina (UNC). He too was named the USBWA Freshman of the Year,
although he was only a 2nd-team All-America selection. He was a 1st-team
selection his sophomore year.

Like Sullinger, he led his league in rebounding
as an underclassman. He was responsible for 6.2 win-shares his freshman
season and then 6.9 as a sophomore. One could attribute that to playing
with more talent at UNC, but in general, their numbers are very
similar.

Hansbrough stayed in school for four years and blossomed into one of
the best players in NCAA history and had Sullinger stayed, it’d be easy
to see him putting up numbers that resemble Hansbrough’s production. In
fact, if you take Sullinger’s 17.49 win shares from his first two years
and double it (although it’s more than conceivable that he would
produce more wins as a junior and senior), that would crush David West’s
record of 31.39 for the 1998-2012 time period.

The 13th overall pick by the Indiana Pacers in 2009, Hansbrough has been a solid player off the bench for one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams.

Through three seasons,
he has averaged 9.9 PPG and 4.8 RPG while shooting 42.5% from the floor
and 78.7% from the line. Boston would surely take that from their
rookie.

Now let’s take a look at the 6-7, 270 pound Blair. He wasn’t as
polished as Hansbrough or Sullinger coming out of high school but he
drastically improved between his freshman and sophomore seasons at
Pittsburgh.

His scoring increased by 4.1 PPG (11.6 to 15.7) and he grabbed 3.2
more rebounds a game (9.1 to 12.3). He even shot better from the floor
(53.7 FG% to 59.3 FG%).

Blair didn’t receive the kinds accolades Sullinger and Hansbrough
earned in his first season. However, he quickly grew into a force to be
reckoned with. A 1st-team All-America selection his sophomore year,
Blair led the Big East in in rebounds (4th best in all of NCAAB). He was responsible for 8.2 wins which second best in his conference and 7th best in the country.

The 37th pick of the 2009 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs, Blair has averaged
8.8 PPG and 6.4 RPG while shooting 52.8% from the floor and 60.2% from
the charity stripe. Production Boston would be very happy with out of
the 21st overall pick.

A veteran to compare Sullinger to is Carlos Boozer, who’s played 10 seasons in the NBA after playing at Duke for three years.

As a Blue Devil, Boozer averaged just over 13 PPG and 6 RPG in his
first two college seasons while accounting for 5.2 win shares each year.

His numbers skyrocketed during his junior year. Boozer score 18.2
PPG, grabbed 8.7 RPG while shooting better than 66% from the field and
hitting more than 75% of this FTs. Just as Sullinger and Hansbrough did
at one point during their careers, Boozer led his league in rebounds and free throw attempts.

The 35th pick of the 2002 draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boozer has had a very good NBA career.
The two-time All-Star has averaged 17 PPG and 9.9. RPG. He hits 53.7%
of his field goals and connects on 72.4% of his free throws.

Based on how those players have fared, Sullinger should be anywhere
between a reliable bench player and an eventual All-Star. Not bad for
the 21st overall pick, a spot in the draft the Celtics have struck gold
with of late (Avery Bradley was the 19th pick in 2010 and Rondo was
essentially the 21st pick in 2006 due to the trade with Phoenix).

FITTING IN

Sullinger won’t be the focal point of the offense anymore. As he puts
it, he has to learn how to go from being the man to not getting that
many shots.

CSNNE’s Sherrod Blakely gave Sullinger high praise during Media Day. Blakely says he has an NBA physique likens him to an all-time great.

“He has the [Charles] Barkley ‘junk in the trunk’ to create space and
be a good rebounder. [There's] no one quite like him,” Blakely said.

However, there’s no doubt one facet of his game is NBA-ready.

“Banner 18 is pretty much everyone else’s focus. I was in high school
for #17…all my goals are thrown into team goals,” Sullinger said.

I don’t care that he doesn’t catch your attention in the gym, running
combine events. If you have to put five players on the court, I want
Sullinger on my team. Heavy shoulders and all.






bob






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