BURNABY, B.C. — Barring an unforeseen occurrence Jared Sullinger is going to have a rather large say in the Raptors fortunes this year.

The Ohio State grad, who will wear the numeral 0 on his Raptors jersey in honour of his home state of Ohio and because he and the rest of the world knew there was no way he was going to wrest seven from Kyle Lowry, was declared the most likely to take over Luis Scola’s starting power forward role by Dwane Casey on media day in Toronto. Casey reserved the right to change his mind but right now that appears to be he plan.

That opportunity, along with some rather solid recommendations by former Raptor and Sullinger’s ex-teammate in Boston Amir Johnson is why Sullinger signed in Toronto.

He had both larger salary offers and longer-term offers from other teams but chose Toronto. Masai Ujiri signed him up with a one-year $6-million offer.

It’s now up to Sullinger to make Toronto a long-term home. What stood in his way of doing that in Boston were weight issues.

The team wanted the 6-foot-9 bruiser playing at around 260 after drafting him late in the first round in 2012.

He eventually got there and started 73 of 81 games last year and 171 out of 258 games played over his four years there.

But hanging over his head throughout much of that was an on-going battle with management and from within over his own weight.

Sullinger would at one point last season tip the scales at just over 300 pounds.

The feeling within the organization were his injury problems were directly related to the heavy weight he was carrying.

No one can be certain how much those weight issues played into the Celtics decision not to re-sign him this past year but it’s fair to say they were a factor. Without question the free agent acquisition of Al Horford played into it as well.

Either way, Sullinger was looking for a new home and he believes he has found one in Toronto. Sullinger is back down to 260 and admits it has not been easy nor does he expect it to be easy to maintain that weight level. At the same time he is fully committed to doing just that for a handful of reasons.

First and foremost he wants to live a long and healthy life. He also wants to enjoy a long and financially fruitful career and finally he wants the weight issue to just cease to be a part of his daily existence.

“I am just trying to take those days and put them behind me, well, not really behind me but just the weight issue, put it behind me” Sullinger said following the first day of training camp at the Fortius Sport & Health Centre here in Burnaby.

“Understand this is a new breath of life and it’s time to change the image,” he said. “Every day I am working. I can’t stop. It’s something that will be stuck with me for the rest of the my life.”

Sullinger’s family was concerned enough about his weight gain that they held an intervention bringing former No. 1 pick John Lucas to Sullinger’s Columbus, Ohio, apartment to talk about work ethic and getting him back on the right path.

That intervention took place in the summer of 2015. Sullinger , with Lucas’ help, got down to his desired playing weight but when his minutes started to dry up as the Celtics went with smaller linups and much more Jae Crowder than Jared Sullinger, the weight stated to creep up again.

Sullinger feels like he has it under control again.

Only this time he knows just getting it under control is part of the battle. The rest is keeping it under control.

“You get there (down to 260) and you stop,” he said. “For me, I can’t have an off day. DeMarre Carroll can have an off day. DeMar DeRozan can have an off day. Jared Sullinger can’t. It’s going to be a battle. I have learned how to manage it and I’m getting better at it every day.”

Health problems within his own family which has plenty of experience with weight control issues have brought out the fighter in him.

“My biggest thing was watching my grandmother pass away from diabetes,” he said. “I had another family member in the hospital with fluid in his lungs. He had a damaged heart. I had an uncle who passed away after a heart attack.

“Even though I am active, even though I am healthy, certain things go a long way if you just cut them out. I look at their lives as examples of somewhere I don’t want to go down.”

Sullinger is never going to have one of those professional athlete, rock-hard bodies. He knows he didn’t win the metabolism lottery when he was born.

“I got the other end of that stick for sure,”he said. “I definitely did. I can’t just come out here and eat whatever I want. There are guys who can eat, not work out and still lose weight. I am not that guy. Every day is going to be a battle. Every day I have to do something whether it’s just getting up and walking around. Just anything to burn calories and keep the weight off.”

Sullinger also discovered this past summer that his sleep habits definitely impact his eating habits and he’s been changing them as well.

“Sleep has a big time connection to my weight gain because my body is not properly resting at a certain point,” he said. “My metabolism is not working at the proper levels so sleep is very important. There are times during the season going back all the way to high school I could stay up until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, wake up at 8:30 and just function. This summer I learned for me what foods I could and could not eat and on top of that (the importance of ) just getting my (steady) rest.”

Sullinger says there is no food he has given up that he craves simply because he knows he doesn’t want to pay the cost of giving in to that craving.

“I am a very stubborn guy,” he admits. “We are all stubborn at some point but what opened my eyes mostly is just the type of money and the type of trust guys with these higher paid contracts have and really it comes down to just one thing. Being a pro and taking care of their body,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t trust me as far as body wise. ‘Can he hold up? Can he play this amount of minutes?’ This year I’m just looking forward to taking on that challenge.”

LOTS OF SUPPORT

In Boston, the Celtics opted not to sign Jared Sullinger long-term. The plan, if they did according to published reports, was to insist on a some sort of weight clause language in his contract.

They never had to make that decision opting instead look elsewhere.

The Raptors inked the 6-foot-9, 260-pound power forward to a one-year deal worth $6 million. Sullinger said Tuesday there is no such clause in his deal with Toronto.

“No, no contract language,” Sullinger said. “Masai (Ujiri) trusts me and he trusts the group we have here. On top of that I have vets talking to me. Kyle (Lowry) and DeMar (DeRozan) and DeMarre (Carroll) the guys are really counting on me to play major minutes so you kind of have to accept that and just keep going.”