Doc Rivers already has protection plan in place for Jared Sullinger – NBA News
Jared Sullinger was picked by the Boston Celtics in this year’s draft, even though he had been red flagged by the NBA doctors. He was also assessed ineffective in the NBA as most of his ability was based on being able to control the game off the glass against smaller college players. Then there were issues about his defensive abilities as well.
However, the Celtics surprised everyone when they picked him ahead of his anticipated number and added him to a championship contending team. And now the C's are hard at work in training and developing this new talent who they believe can very soon take an important assignment within the team.
Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers recently talked to the Boston Herald where he mentioned Sullinger and gave proof of the excellent player development programme that the Celtics have when he disclosed that they had a plan to protect him and shield his weaknesses.
“We try to protect him so that won’t happen. The reason we played him with Kevin (Garnett) in the second quarter is because the bigger guy was always guarding Kevin. We got the matchup that way. Sometimes you have to create the matchup. Some teams don’t have two bigs like that, they only have one. So when you’re playing with Darko (Milicic) or you’re playing with Kevin, you really don’t have that problem. The good thing is that for a long stretch he was guarding a 5,” said Rivers.
Rivers has just shown how small things can add up to make the difference between championship contenders and average teams. And definitely, the Boston Celtics are championship contenders. Sullinger is a first round draft pick, so he has heavy expectations on his shoulders that he needs to fulfil if he wants to be taken seriously in the NBA. However, with the kind of player development programme the Celtics have installed and the effort they are making on him, Sullinger is in an ideal situation as far as his first team in the NBA is concerned. All he now needs to do is put in the effort and diligently follow the programme.
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