The Boston Celtics have officially given up on Jared Sullinger, whom they drafted 21st overall in 2012. Sullinger has always been an elite prospect, but injuries and his inability to stay at playing weight have kept him from reaching elite status. Even when out of shape, Sullinger is one of the NBA’s most talented rebounders, and has quite a consistent midrange jumper. However, according to Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun, Sullinger has dropped a large amount of weight:
Sullinger would at one point last season tip the scales at just over 300 pounds.
The feeling within the organization were his injury problems were directly related to the heavy weight he was carrying.
No one can be certain how much those weight issues played into the Celtics decision not to re-sign him this past year but it’s fair to say they were a factor. Without question the free agent acquisition of Al Horford played into it as well.
Either way, Sullinger was looking for a new home and he believes he has found one in Toronto. Sullinger is back down to 260 and admits it has not been easy nor does he expect it to be easy to maintain that weight level. At the same time he is fully committed to doing just that for a handful of reasons.
First and foremost he wants to live a long and healthy life. He also wants to enjoy a long and financially fruitful career and finally he wants the weight issue to just cease to be a part of his daily existence.
“I am just trying to take those days and put them behind me, well, not really behind me but just the weight issue, put it behind me” Sullinger said following the first day of training camp at the Fortius Sport & Health Centre here in Burnaby.
“Understand this is a new breath of life and it’s time to change the image,” he said. “Every day I am working. I can’t stop. It’s something that will be stuck with me for the rest of [m]y life.”
Furthermore — and this is likely at least in part due to his dropped weight — Sullinger is the favorite to start at power forward over stretch-four Patrick Patterson, per Doug Smith of The Star:
“I would say Sullinger is the guy now that [the starting spot] would be his to lose, but I reserve the right to change my mind,” [head coach Dwane] Casey said, citing the need to see how that group reacts defensively.
The argument for starting Patterson is his shooting stroke: the 27-year-old is a career 36.7% shooter from beyond the arc. Sullinger, on the other hand, has shot exactly 10% lower on three-pointers over the course of his four-year career. However, watching Sullinger, it often appears that the problem with his shot is that he isn’t jumping high enough, which his weight loss could certainly help with. He has a nice stroke, and could definitely become an above-average three-point shooter. If you’re interested in what Jared Sullinger knocking down treys as a member of the Raptors looks like, the team posted this video on their Twitter page:
Nothin' but nylon for @Jared_Sully0 on Day 3 of camp. #WeTheNorth https://t.co/lGZF9lZOgb
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) September 29, 2016
