Boston Celtics Shut Down Jared Sullinger for Rest of the Season

The Celtics will be without their leading scorer Jared Sullinger for the rest of the season. This is the second time in his three-year career that Boston’s big man’s season is ending abruptly. Sullinger played in just 45 games as a rookie, before being forced to shut it down due to a back injury. He also dealt with back problems while at Ohio State, which was a significant factor in Sullinger falling to the Celtics who had the 21st pick in the 2012 draft.

This time, it is a foot injury that is responsible for a premature ending to the robust power forward’s season. The official diagnosis is a left metatarsal stress fracture. Sullinger suffered the injury during a win against the Hawks on February 11th.

The injury is a huge blow to a Celtics front line that was once overcrowded but is now quite shallow. Thankfully for Boston, reinforcements have arrived. Newly acquired stretch-forward Jonas Jerebko will help to fill the void. Jerebko is shooting 36.8 from three-point range and will fit nicely into the Celtics offense.

However, it will take more than one player to overcome the loss of Boston’s leading scorer and rebounder. Sullinger is averaging 14.4 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per contest and is playing just under 30 minutes a night. He leads the Celtics in rebounding by a significant margin as Tyler Zeller’s 5.5 boards per game rank second on the team.

Sullinger played a major role in Boston going 4-1 in its final five games leading up to the all-star break. To be fair, three of those wins came against the Knicks, Nuggets and Sixers and even the team’s last second victory against the Hawks may have had more to do with Atlanta’s mind being on all-star weekend than on that night’s game.

Still, that stretch is when Brad Stevens discovered how effective the Celtics could be when having just one big man on the floor. Stevens had finally found the floor spacing that he had been seeking, which helped Sullinger thrive as he now had ample room to operate on the blocks. In those five games Boston’s offensive rating rose from 100.9 points per 100 possessions to 104.3 points per 100 possessions. Again, the quality of opponents were a factor but the results were encouraging.

The time between now and the start of next season could come to define the rest of Sullinger’s career. This could serve as a wake up call for the 6-foot-9, 260 pound power forward to finally get himself in better playing shape. Something that would not only help make him a more productive player but also figures to do wonders for his back, feet and even his knees, which haven’t given him problems yet, but at his current playing weight it is only a matter of time before they do.

I don’t want to make that process sound easy; it’s not. But the alternative is that what will be a restrictive rehab process is combined with a diet that looks vastly different from Tom Brady’s, resulting in Sullinger showing up to training camp out of shape and overweight. Something that figures to result in another injury and perhaps even another shortened season for Sullinger.

Time will tell which route Sullinger chooses to go.