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.

While the basketball world was fretting over Kevin Durant’s free agent decision, Amir Johnson had a pretty strong feeling about where the Oklahoma City star was headed.

“I really thought he was coming to us,” Johnson said.

Though if that had been the case with Durant, it wouldn’t have been “us” for Amir, but more on that later.

[…]

I had no problem with it,” Johnson said. “I mean, when I first got here, I liked the vision that Danny (Ainge) had. I like the direction this team is going in. I’m just happy he called me about this, because usually you don’t get calls from GMs telling you what’s going on. You usually just hear when it’s done. I appreciated him calling on that, so I just said, ‘OK, I’ll wait it out and see what happens from there.’ Basically he just kept it straight up. He said, ‘We’re going to try to get two big free agents. If we do that, you might not come back. If we don’t, you’re going to come back.’

“I loved that. I feel like the honesty part is tough in the business sometimes because usually GMs just make moves on the drop of a dime without even telling you. Danny had his plan, and when he made that call to me, I was totally fine. I feel like if more GMs and coaches communicated to see what was going on, players wouldn’t have a problem.”

Boston Herald – Johnson bullish on Celtics’ future

I certainly wasn’t thinking about Amir Johnson (or Jonas Jerebko) very much over the holiday weekend as the Celtics were busy courting Kevin Durant. The only time I thought of those two guys was in the context of: “If Durant comes to Boston, we only have to give up Amir and Jonas — this is great!”

Well, KD isn’t here, and neither is Jared Sullinger, but Johnson is back for his second year of a two year, $24 million contract that looks like a bargain given the spending spree occurring across the league.

Two big takeaways from Steve Bulpett’s piece:

One: Amir Johnson wants to be here and has loads of respect for Danny Ainge. Johnson was in a holding pattern for the first weekend of free agency, which has to be disconcerting in regards to one’s comfort and stability and make one feel at least a bit disrespected. Kudos to Johnson, a veteran in the league, for understanding that when Kevin Durant is a possibility, anyone on the Cs roster could become expendable. The fact that Johnson was amenable to the circumstances and was fine with having the decision on his contract extended nearly a week, demonstrates a willingness to let the process play out and a desire to play in Boston. Ainge is no stranger to this game either — as a veteran GM in the league, his transparency through the process clearly meant something to Johnson, who was effusive in his praise of Danny. Whether or not Johnson is a part of the short-term future of the Celtics after this year, it’s nice to yet again hear a player speak highly of this organzation.

Two: Don’t forget about Amir Johnson; He is going to play a big role on this Celtics team. He’ll team with Al Horford in the starting front-court and compliment Horford’s floor stretching ability on offense while giving the Celtics a second rim protector on defense. Horford’s leadership was mentioned numerous times during his introductory presser, but Johnson brings spades of leadership as well. With Jared Sullinger moving on, there really is no question as to the front-court depth chart going into the season. Johnson will start with Horford while Kelly Olynyk and some combination of Jordan Mickey, Tyler Zeller (maybe) and Guerschon Yabusele will contribute off the bench.

On page 2, if you overreact to summer league don’t read on

Kris Dunn, Minnesota Timberwolves: A 

Through two games, Dunn has been one of the most impressive performers in Las Vegas. Against Toronto on Sunday, Dunn scored 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting, with most of the makes around the basket.

Again, the caveat remains that Dunn hasn’t needed to rely on outside shooting — he missed all four of the 3-pointers he tried — but even in this setting few prospects get to the rim so regularly and finish with such power, including a three-point play where Dunn drew the foul, but defender Jakob Poeltl got the worst of the contact. Dunn also had nine boards.

Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics: B-minus 

There were positive signs for Brown in his second game in Las Vegas, at least when the action didn’t involve him shooting. Brown was back to his usual foul-drawing ways, creating early foul trouble for Bender and shooting six free throws. And he made plays for teammates (three assists) and came up with a big blocked shot on a Marquese Chriss jumper.

But Brown missed all six of his shot attempts, bringing him to 3-for-19 in Sin City. That’s a problem.

ESPNBoston – Las Vegas summer league grades day three

I received a text from my brother yesterday evening that read: “I really think we are going to regret passing on Kris Dunn when we look back in a few years.” As I watched highlights this morning of yesterday’s action and saw Dunn aggressively scoring at the rim, I started to think the same thing.

Then I took a deep breath and remembered that summer league means absolutely nothing (so little in fact that I’m not even capitalizing summer league). It would be nice to see Jaylen Brown make some shots, but we knew this was going to be a problem for Brown anyways. Last night Dunn, Buddy Hield, Ben Simmons and Marquese Chriss all put up better stat lines than Brown, and so it’s easy to start booing the pick all over again. Just remember, these guys are young, they’re learning and they’re going to grow and change as players. If you can’t remember that, you should probably stop watching summer league before you give yourself a heart attack.

And finally, the Nets’ loss is the Celtics’ gain

The Brooklyn Nets have no incentive to lose basketball games next season, since the Boston Celtics own their next two draft picks — one via an unprotected trade swap in 2017, and one unprotected pick in 2018.

Unfortunately for Brooklyn’s new GM Sean Marks, you can only win games with better players, and the Nets are struggling to get better players.

Brooklyn’s two main targets in free agency, once it became clear that top free agents weren’t coming anywhere near the team, were Miami guard Tyler Johnson and Portland guard Allen Crabbe — two young players with intriguing skill sets who are largely unproven at this point. The Nets’ strategy was to sign Crabbe and Johnson to very lucrative offer sheets in restricted free agency, hoping to dissuade the Blazers and Heat from matching.

In a pair of moves that should be highly encouraging for Celtics fans, the Heat and Blazers matched.

Mass Live – Brooklyn Nets lose out on Tyler Johnson, Allen Crabbe

I never thought I’d be doing backflips over the Nets losing out on a back-up point guard and a middle of the road wing player, but anything that can make the Nets worse is a huge win for fans of the Celtics.

The Nets went ahead and signed Greivis Vasquez to a one-year deal, ostensibly to make up for the loss of Johnson. With Jared Sullinger available and the opportunity to sign Tyler Zeller to an offer sheet, it’s possible the Nets only recourse will be to pluck at the Celtics’ leftovers. Pundits lauded the Nets and new GM Sean Marks on a savvy off-season, but that doesn’t mean Brooklyn will be any better than last season. Marks’ job is to set the Nets up for long-term success, but there is no move that will bring Brooklyn out of the bottom 3-5 teams next season. The loss of Johnson and Crabbe helps solidify that reality and makes the 2017 pick swap continue to look incredibly appetizing as a trade piece or draft pick for the Celtics.