Jared Sullinger forgot how to work hard

Jared Sullinger's NBA career hit a crossroad last season when a foot injury derailed his season.

Weight was the main issue fans and the C's front office were pointing to as the reason the former Ohio State product couldn't contribute to the team as much as he possibly could and should have.

Sully told Jay King of MassLive.com and others at Celtics media day today that John Lucas "randomly" flew out to Columbus, OH to talk with the big man and he didn't mince words.
"You have all the talent in the world," Lucas said, as Sullinger recalled at the Celtics media day Friday. "But you've forgotten what hard work is."

Sullinger arguably has the most potential out of all the Celtics on this roster, only to be outdone by maybe Marcus Smart. But when the president of basketball operations goes on 98.5 the Sports Hub late last season and tells all of Boston that he was the only player who didn't meet the conditioning requirements, potential is out the window. That's just a lack of effort.

But this offseason, he's worked with Lucas and noticeably has trimmed down.

He also has a new haircut, but that's neither hair nor there.
"This is probably the best I've felt," he said, "emotionally (and) physically going into the season."

Sully seems primed to help the Celtics and help his pending free agency situation, in a big way this season, but with his weight loss, he's far from done.

However, losing weight and getting on the scale wasn't the only thing the 23 year old was doing at Lucas Lab. He's also been working on his game in the post after Lucas cursed him out for shooting threes.
"That was my biggest wakeup call," Sullinger said, "because he knows I can shoot the basketball. But he also knows I need to be on the block more and get to the free throw line more. We were just working on my post moves. We shot the ball every now and then, but everything I had to do was on the block."

This almost more than the weight loss is music to some Celtics fans ears. Yes, we appreciate the effort to expand your game and range as a three point threat, but somewhere down the line Sully became too in love with the three ball. He also forgot he is a moose and has the ability to make a huge impact inside the paint.

All in all Lucas Lab seems to have done Sully a world of good this offseason, but we won't really know until he starts playing games.

Photo Credit: Boston Celtics Twitter (@celtics)

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