Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

Team higher-ups defend taking Kaminsky over any draft-day trade package — even after acquiring Spencer Hawes, another shooting big man.

“You have two minutes to decide: ‘Do I want to do this trade?’” says Polk, one of five men atop Charlotte’s decision tree. “You don’t have a day. You don’t have hours. After all the intelligence we’d done, we were comfortable with Frank. But now you have two minutes to decide if you make this trade, who you’re gonna take at no. 16, or maybe no. 20, and we haven’t been focusing on that range. In fantasy basketball, it sounds great: ‘Oh my god, they could have gotten all those picks.’ But in the real world, I’m not sure it makes us better.”

Adds Rich Cho, the team’s GM: “If it was such a no-brainer for us, why would another team want to do it?”

Polk argues drafting extra players might have cramped Charlotte’s roster space. “We didn’t have enough spots after picking up Spencer Hawes, Jeremy Lamb, and Batum,” Polk says. “Even if someone wants to give me first-round picks, what am I going to do with them?”

Grantland: Good Charlotte? The Hornets and the sliding scale of mediocrity

This piece by Zach Lowe makes me very happy I’m not a Charlotte Hornets fan.

Leave the Celtics offer aside for a minute. Read through that piece and you’ll see Zach brings up some great points about the Hornets’ front office failures:

1: The team’s vice chairman says: ” who you’re gonna take at no. 16, or maybe no. 20, and we haven’t been focusing on that range,” a clear sign the team isn’t doing its due diligence on all players in the draft. It’s one thing for a fan to focus on who might be picked at 9 and then stop caring, but the team has to be ready for anything. That’s their freakin’ job. When another team comes calling with a trade offer, you should at least be prepared for it.

Honestly I can rest my case with that quote as evidence that the Hornets organization is a farce. To say ‘oh, we weren’t really ready to pick down there’ tells the fans you weren’t ready to explore all options to make your team better. If they had said “we thought Frank was better than any two players that we could have gotten in those slots” then it would have been at least a little more understandable. We may have questioned the team’s talent evaluation mechanism… but still at least they would have demonstrated some preparedness.

2: The team not only turned down four picks from the Celtics (including one of the unprotected Brooklyn picks), they turned down two first rounders last year to draft Noah Vonleh instead. Vonleh was flipped for Nic Batum, a free agent after this season. So in two drafts, the Hornets passed on six future first round picks for Vonleh (now Batum) and Kaminsky.

The Hornets now desperately need two things to happen: They need Batum to re-sign, and they need Kaminsky to become a star player. They’re going to max-out Batum next summer to justify their moves. Needless to say, there will be a whole lot of praying this year in Charlotte.

3: This team is under a lot of pressure, and they’re screwing it all up. GM Rich Cho said of the Batum deal:

“You try to balance winning now with winning later, and we felt trading for Nic gave us the best of both worlds.”

And this is where we tie it all back into the Celtics. The Hornets need to win now. They need some measure of success because they’ve sucked for so long. They need to sell their fans on hope and success. They’re not making decisions based on the future.

This is why they fall so hard for guys like Kaminsky. He’s going there to contribute now. He’s going there to play 25 minutes a game and contribute to the offense. He’s not going there to be stashed in the D-League or be slowly brought along. He’s not someone’s eventual replacement. Frank Kaminsky is in Charlotte to contribute.

Terry Rozier and RJ Hunter aren’t under such pressure. Neither are the Celtics to win at all costs in 2015-16. Sure, the clock is ticking on a rebuild, but the pressure doesn’t hit Boston until a couple of years when the timer on this rebuild dings and the ingredients Ainge put in the oven become a full-fledged meal.

But Ainge at least has some semblance of a plan. It’s contingent on some other things happening, but if this was an Iron Chef competition, Ainge would be slowly making planned dishes and the Hornets would be scrambling to recover after dropping a bunch of ingredients on the floor.

In the end, the Celtics’ future is hurt by the bumblings of bad franchises like Charlotte. To turn down four picks because, in part, you weren’t focused on that part of the draft is insanity. We’re not even debating the merit of the deal in this story. The Hornets just didn’t want to be bothered with the extra picks. They fell for a guy who might turn out to be a nice player but is in no way expected to be transformational.

Will this lunacy ultimately save Ainge from what he thought might have been a bad deal? We’ll have to wait and see. But whatever the case, I’m just glad I’m not rooting for the Hornets.

Related links: MassLive: More details of draft night pursuit of Justise Winslow emerge

Page 2: So how will we use the player we have?

It’s even difficult to name the starting five. Here’s a guess: Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Amir Johnson, and David Lee. Sounds pretty good until you ask what happens with Jared Sullinger, who has trimmed down and will be healthy entering training camp; Kelly Olynyk, who showed flashes of potential during the playoffs; and Isaiah Thomas, the sixth man who wants to start.

Meanwhile, where does that leave Evan Turner, Jonas Jerebko, and Tyler Zeller? For Stevens, it will be determined by training camp performances, but there are roles players may not be crazy about.

First, Johnson and Lee have to start. Both are established veterans and staunch rebounders. The Celtics have to begin games with an interior presence at both ends. Lee is not a great defender but he can score. Johnson is not a great scorer but he can defend and protect the basket. Stevens has to see how those two will blend and it was apparent during Monday’s news conference that the two are beginning to bond.

Globe: With roster set, it’s time to determine roles

Alex started looking at this issue last week (and we’ll get to more later today).

First, I’m not sold on this team making it through 2015 as currently constituted (aside from the fact that they literally have too many players on the roster). Signed free agents can’t be traded until December 15 (or 3 months after they’re officially signed, whichever is later) so keep an eye on that. It’s sort of the starting gun to trade season where guy who have been acquired over the summer can be included in deals that may have been brewing. This when Rondo was traded last year, and it might be where other guys are traded if teams feel the pressure of a departing free agent.

I don’t want to get too nuts, but hypothetically, if Kevin Durant and Billy Donovan completely butt heads from the beginning, this could be something to watch for. Sure, it might be akin to waiting around for Kate Upton to be available, but you know, whatever, a man can dream.

Anyway, assuming these are the players we’ll have for at least a majority of the season (or at least to start it), there are obvious roles that need to be worked out. Without stepping on the toes of Alex’s upcoming work, I’ll just share these few thoughts:

1: David Lee didn’t come here to come off the bench. He could have done that for the reigning champs.

2: I think the team was pretty clear at the end of last season that they love Isaiah Thomas in a bench role, and they’ll keep him there.

3:  Evan Turner was used out of necessity last season and it worked out. I don’t think that necessity exists this year, and that makes his role pretty murky.

4: Sully coming into camp in great shape will throw a big wrench into all of this because he will command playing time and that frontcourt is pretty crowded. Part of me feels like the Celtics got these bigs as Sullinger insurance.

5: Kelly Olynyk, despite the hatred from some of the fans, can still become the most important player on this team. His shooting and versatility could make him a top-3 option if… IFFFFFFF… he can become the aggressive offensive player we’ve seen him be from time to time.

What does that all mean? We’ll have to wait for training camp to see how it shakes out. The variables are too huge right now.

And finally…

Paul Pierce… good at basketball, bad at baseball.

Nice bounce pass, though.

The rest of the links:

CSNNE: Crowder & Celtics proving to be a great match  | Celtics player introductions signal a step forward  |  ESPN Boston: Johnson on jersey: The 90’s were good  |  MassLive: Allan Houston Q&A on shooting, scouting, the Triangle and more