With the Celtics preseason upon us, Sullinger says he will play

While admittedly, Jared Sullinger is not in game shape, but that is not going to stop him from participating in the Celtics 2013-14 preseason.

Still battling back from back surgery that ended his 2012-13 rookie campaign, Sullinger has stated that he is 100% healthy and ready to contribute. The preseason camp and slate of games should help him to get back into NBA game shape.

“I need to get in better shape. Honestly, not playing for six or seven months is really, really tough. I’m just trying to get in better shape every day,” he said.

“I know my energy level was – I was trying to be up there, with as much as I had in the tank,” he added. “Again, everybody’s playing hard. We’re not listening to people like ya’ll (the media) that say we’re not going to do nothing this year, so we’re just out there working hard and trying to prove everybody wrong.”

The best (…worst?) example of playing oneself into game shape has to be Rasheed Wallace in the 2010 post-season, right? As long as it doesn’t take until Game 7 of the NBA Finals for Sullinger to contribute, this is all good(ish) news. It would be better if he was 100% ready to dominate the low block right now. It was be fantastic if he had been in the gym since May getting ready for the season and was prepping for a Barkley-esque season. However, this is not the case. The issues with his back were well documented coming into last season and hopefully those issues have now been fixed.

While Sully’s contributions to Project: Reboot remain to be seen if he makes it through the season, then we’ll automatically be up on last year and playing with house money.

source: MassLive

photo: AP Photo/Elise Amendola

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