Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Simply by looking at those numbers, you see that the odds are in Sullinger’s favor for a big 2015-16 season. But if we dig even deeper – to the players who nearly mirrored Sullinger’s statistical performance during their third season – the odds improve even more.
Eight players out of this group put up third-year numbers that align very closely with those that Sullinger racked up in 2014-15. Those players are Enes Kanter, Kawhi Leonard, Tobias Harris, Greg Monroe, Brook Lopez, Roy Hibbert, JaVale McGee and J.J. Hickson.
Five of those players (Kanter, Leonard, Lopez, Hibbert and McGee) had career years during their contract season, with an average increase of about 5 percent in the scoring column, about 10 percent in the rebounding column, and about 18 percent in the PER column. Meanwhile, two (Harris and Hickson) made negligible strides forward/backward, and only Monroe, who saw his scoring and rebounding averages take minor dips while his PER dropped by 1.36 points, was the only player out of this group to take a substantial step backward. (Monroe still garnered a max contract this offseason.)
The numbers don’t lie. High-level prospects, particularly those of Sullinger’s playing level, view their first contract year as a major motivator. These players work their tails off during their third offseason and come back with a refined mindset for the most important season of their young careers.
All signs point toward Sullinger falling into the successful end of this group. The odds are in Sullinger’s favor, and more importantly, Brad Stevens has publicly stated that the big man has been “doing great” with his offseason workouts. It appears that Sullinger has dropped a substantial amount of weight this offseason while working on his game.
Sullinger appears to be priming himself for a career year, and based off of recent history, that’s exactly what we should expect.
Celtics.com – History Suggests Sullinger Will Have Career Year
There’s been rumblings all off-season about Jared Sullinger finally getting his act together on the court. Through various Instagram posts and Tweets Sullinger has made it clear that he’s working hard and has changed for the better. That would be positive news for both Sullinger and the Celtics and if we go by the above piece from their official website, we should be expecting a huge season from him. The problem is, the C’s have a bud load of bigs at Sullinger’s position so he’ll have to force his way to that leap year. Either way, it will be good if all this happens, if they decide to keep him here or trade him.
On Page 2: The Celtics have special socks
Starting this season, every @nba team will have two exclusive oncourt socks. Here’s your first look at the @celtics. pic.twitter.com/LzIY7cxEZc
— Stance Hoops (@stancehoops) September 17, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI mean sure, ok. Personally I still prefer the black socks, but hey whatever works.
The rest of the links:
CSNNE.com – Blakely’s NBA Western Conference Preview
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