Sullinger answers one big question
Limping free-agent pickup repays Raptors’ confidence with impressive conditioning
The process actually began in the middle of the summer, when the Toronto Raptors laid out what they expected from Jared Sullinger, how they wanted him to work and what they wanted him to work on.
They knew that conditioning had been an issue with the newly-acquired free-agent power forward and they made it clear they would accept no slippage.
It paid off then and it’s paying off now, they say, even though a sore foot has sidelined Sullinger for more than a week and threatens to keep him idle for the rest of the NBA pre-season.
Those seeds sown in July and Au- gust are important now.
“He’s been on a regimented program the entire summer. He’s done a great job with everything we’ve asked him to do,” coach Dwane Casey said Monday. “He went out and spent almost a month in Vancouver (with the team’s medical and conditioning staff ).
“He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do conditioning-wise and weight-wise and all that. That’s not a concern.”
Sullinger said he was injured in Toronto’s first pre-season game, an outing in Vancouver against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 1, and hasn’t played a game or practised fully since.
Team officials have said if this was the regular season he might be able to suit up.
Sullinger agreed with that assessment Monday, but also said he’s not sure if he’ll appear in either of Toron- to’s last two exhibition games, Wednesday in Detroit and Friday in Washington. “We’ll see,” he said. “Right now the main concern is health. I don’t feel a need to, but we’ll see how I feel.”
Casey said before training camp that Sullinger had the inside track on the starting frontcourt position next to Jonas Valanciunas, but that there were questions about the two big men and their transition defence. There hasn’t been any time to figure out if that’ll work, but Casey said he’s seen enough for now.
“Offensively, it wasn’t a problem — he’s going to make us so much better offensively — but my concern was our transition defence,” Casey said. “Could he and J.V. get back consistently with teams running on us . . . and I’ve seen that. They did it in the first week of training camp and also in the first game, so that answered that question.”
For now, Sullinger spends practices riding a stationary bike or doing some weightlifting and, he says, pestering the staff.
“I ask a lot of questions. You can ask Nick Nurse. You can ask Case, Rex (Kalamian). I’m always asking questions,” Sullinger said, citing two assistant coaches and the man in charge. “What’s this? What’s this play call? What are we doing with him? I’m trying to be a player-coach from the bench for the rookies, just trying to help out. I can sit there and watch and learn where I need to be, learn by watching.”