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

“But that’s history. There’s nothing we can do to change that. This is a situation where he can come and grow as a player. I think Brad (Stevens) realizes he’s a multi-dimensional player.”

Turner played at Ohio State for Stevens’ former Butler boss, Thad Matta, and coaching appears to have played a major role in Turner’s decision.

“There are teams that offered him one-year deals. There are teams that offered him multi-year deals,” said Falk. “But I think the deal here is secondary to the environment.

“Boston all along has been probably our No. 1 destination. I felt what Evan needed was to kind of replicate the relationship that he had with coach Brett Brown in Philadelphia. … We were really looking mostly for an environment more than geography.”

Falk admitted his clear bias, but he supported his case that the trade from the 76ers cost his client.

“Had Evan stayed in Philly with those kind of numbers, more than likely he would have made in excess of $10 million a year,” he said. “So we obviously didn’t want to lock him into a long-term kind of a deal, and I think, likewise, the Celtics want to see. They know Evan was the national Player of the Year (in 2009-10). They know that over the last two years he’s averaged 14, 6 and 4 (13.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists), which are pretty good numbers. So I think this is an opportunity for him to re-establish his value in a new environment.

“I think if you’d asked most GMs in February when Evan was averaging 17, 6 and almost 4, I think they all would have expected that he’d be a treasured free agent,” Falk added. “Unfortunately in the NBA, we tend to be very trendy. When you’re up, you’re really up. When you’re down, you’re really down. Sometimes people don’t modulate in the middle.”

There is little on the line for the Celtics with this deal. If Turner realizes his potential, he will be a steal at the price. If he is not a good fit here, he will still be making several million less than Gerald Wallace or Jeff Green.

Boston Herald – Turner, Celtics see upside in deal

Whoa, eeeeeeasy there, Mr. Falk.  While we can likely come to a consensus that the Evan Turner signing is a nice low risk option, we could also probably agree that it would have been insane to sign him to big money and/or several years.  Official terms have yet to be released, but all indications from Bulpett’s piece suggest that at most it’s a two-year deal, since it’s suggested that Turner will be able to cash in when the salary cap makes the projected jump.  It could be a 3 year deal with a player option after year two.

We’ve seen these type of commentary from David Falk before.  One of his other Celtics clients, Jeff Green, supposedly had several suitors at the time the Celtics extended him.  Yet, the names of these other teams were never discovered.  Look, we all know that Falk is doing his job and he’s done his job extraordinarily well for a long time.  And who knows, he could be right about Turner.  What we do know is that as currently constructed, the C’s roster is overloaded in general, especially from the 1-3 positions.

There very well may be a trade in the works, but as of now it seems like Ainge is building a hockey team for Brad Stevens, to trot out 4 lines of guys, 5 in, 5 out every few minutes.  Except well, that would kind of be illegal to carry 20 players.

Turner has buried the Celtics a couple of times at the buzzer, once even coming in the playoffs back in 2012.  Let’s see what exactly the final roster looks like, as well as even seeing if Boston is the place Turner can redeem himself and his game before we go bananas.  That includes going with the eyeball or stat test, which can go either way. We’ve seen some of the advanced stats that show how bad he was, just as we can see this stat, showing how rare his basic numbers were when on Philly last year when he averaged at least 17.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists:
http://widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fplay-index%2Fpsl_finder.cgi%3Frequest%3D1%26match%3Dsingle%26type%3Dper_game%26per_minute_base%3D36%26lg_id%3DNBA%26is_playoffs%3DN%26year_min%3D2014%26year_max%3D2014%26franch_id%3D%26season_start%3D1%26season_end%3D-1%26age_min%3D0%26age_max%3D99%26height_min%3D0%26height_max%3D99%26birth_country_is%3DY%26birth_country%3D%26is_active%3D%26is_hof%3D%26is_as%3D%26as_comp%3Dgt%26as_val%3D%26pos_is_g%3DY%26pos_is_gf%3DY%26pos_is_f%3DY%26pos_is_fg%3DY%26pos_is_fc%3DY%26pos_is_c%3DY%26pos_is_cf%3DY%26qual%3D%26c1stat%3Dpts_per_g%26c1comp%3Dgt%26c1val%3D17.3%26c2stat%3Dtrb_per_g%26c2comp%3Dgt%26c2val%3D5.9%26c3stat%3Dast_per_g%26c3comp%3Dgt%26c3val%3D3.6%26c4stat%3D%26c4comp%3Dgt%26c4val%3D%26c5stat%3D%26c5comp%3Dgt%26c6mult%3D1.0%26c6stat%3D%26order_by%3Dpts_per_g&div=div_stats
Nobody is saying he is even close to those guys, but he does have skills, so let’s see just how Stevens uses those skills in context with the rest of the eventual 2014-2015 roster.

Page 2: Framingham native David Blatt knows real pressure

He was 2005 coach of the year in the Russian Super League thanks to his work with Dynamo St. Petersburg, so the Russians were willing to make an unorthodox hire. Imagine, a Hebrew-speaking Russian national coach.

“It was a very difficult first three months out of the seven years I was there,” said Blatt.

Perhaps his greatest opponents were ghosts from the old Soviet athletic machine. National team duty was still an oppressive requirement, with punitive measures for the non-compliant. Players faced suspensions from club teams and financial penalties if they didn’t report.

Training still followed the old Soviet model, often with three practices per day. Little heed was paid to player health. Injuries had been viewed as an inconvenience.

“It was almost dangerous,” said Blatt, who was in a constant fight against the system.

Despite opposition from Russian officials and even the players, who were conditioned not to know any better, Blatt eliminated the national service requirement.

Boston Herald – David Blatt brings world of experience to NBA

Umm, yeah I think he’ll be able to handle the “pressure” of Cleveland and the rest of the NBA just fine.

The rest of the links:

ESPN Boston – Rapid reaction: C’s sign Evan Turner | Loose ends in Humphries sign-and-trade

Boston Globe – Evan Turner agrees to deal with Celtics

CSNNE – Report: Celtics sign Evan Turner

MassLive – Evan Turner finalizes contract to become member of the Celtics

Cleveland.com – Evan Turner, Jared Sullinger missed out on playing together at Ohio State, now will reportedly get chance with Boston Celtics

LibertyBallers.com – Boston Celtics to sign former 76er Evan Turner