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NBA Comparison: Jared Sullinger – Celtics Blog

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By on Aug 26, 2013, 11:52pm EDT 51

With all this talk of if Kelly Olynyk can become the next Dirk Nowitzki, can Jeff Green become a 20 point scorer, and who is Vitor Faverani? I began to think of NBA comparisons for these players. The following is one such of these projections. Please note, I’m not saying these players are the ceiling/basement projections for these players, it’s just my opinion of what they might turn into.

To start, I’ll begin with Jared Sullinger. Admittedly, the sample size on Jared is small with his season-ending injury, and by the fact that he didn’t receive steady minutes at the beginning of this season. However, we learned several things about the former Buckeye, and his per 36 numbers are quite good.

10.9
Not bad for a rookie, and gives us hope as fans going forward that Sully will turn into a solid player. With this in mind, here is my comparison for Sully.
NBA Comparison: DeJuan Blair
I know, not the Kevin Love or LeMarcus Aldridge we were all hoping for, but Blair is quite comparable to our young Celtic for several reasons. For starters, let’s look at Blair’s per 36 numbers as well.
Ironically, even after falling out of the San Antonio rotation this past year in favor of Thiago Splitter, Blair’s career averages per 36 are still quite good, and even slightly better then Sully’s from this past season. Going forward, several things are clear from these numbers however.

Now let’s look at the advanced statistics for Jared Sullinger:
And now for DeJuan Blair:
Again, the statistics between the two are eerily similar, and I’d like to point a few specifically.

Apart from the statistical similarities between the two players, they are also similar in shot selection:
Jared Sullinger:

DeJuan Blair:

Now it’s clear that Blair was the more used of the two offensively, but Sullinger was a rookie on a veteran team, and I expect he’ll have more shot attempts this coming season. The two players are similar in their offensive range and abilities. As much as people want Sully to improve his range out to 16+ feet, looking at these numbers, I’d much prefer he’d sure up his game from 3 to 10 feet out.
Finally, both DeJuan Blair and Jared Sullinger are roughly the same size. Blair clocks in at 6’7″ and 265 lbs. Sully is 6’9″ and 280lbs. I know what you’re thinking, 2 inches and 15 pounds is a big difference, well it is, and it isn’t… Both are undersized at the PF, and so far Blair has proven to be the better rebounder (he led the league in ORB% in 2010-2011.) Sullinger should apply his extra girth to keeping his man out of the point a little more, and attempting to not let his man go over the top of him, but both are undersized for the Center position, but both have had to/will have to play it, this upcoming season.
In closing, I don’t think Celtic’s fans should be disappointed that Jared Sullinger is comparable to DeJuan Blair, I think we should be proud of it. Blair is a really solid player, a hard working guy who’s gonna give you good, efficient production every night on the court, and if Sullinger can become the same, what a steal. Believing that Sullinger was the next Kevin Love was a long shot, and probably too far a stretch, but going forward, Sullinger should be a Blair-esque type player, perhaps even better. Only time shall tell!
What do you think? Is Blair a good comparison for Sully? I look forward to your comments.
Bibliography:
All stats were brought to you by http://www.basketball-reference.com , and the letter “F.”
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