Your Morning Dump… Where we wonder what’s up with Sully?

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.

Sullinger continues to fight an uphill battle to solidify a spot in the Celtics’ big man rotation, and Wednesday’s performance certainly didn’t help matters. For starters, he missed seven of his eight shot attempts from the field. He played just 12 minutes and finished with twice as many fouls (4) as rebounds (2). There’s still plenty of time in the preseason for Sullinger to turn around his fortunes in terms of playing time. But three games into the preseason and things are not looking good for the fourth-year big man.

CSNNE – Stars, studs and duds: Thomas shines in starting role

Before a shootaround Wednesday, head coach Brad Stevens fielded a question about how the rookies have adjusted to the NBA life. After briefly complimenting all the first-year pros, he turned the conversation to how Mickey controlled Tuesday’s practice.

“Jordan Mickey probably had the best day of anybody in practice yesterday,” Stevens said before a team shootaround at Basketball City. “He was dominant. It was outstanding.”

MassLive – Rookie Jordan Mickey dominated a recent Celtics practice, according to Brad Stevens

Don’t want to jump to conclusions, but is Jared Sullinger losing his role with the Celtics?

Recent reports have indicated Stevens may have settled on his four-man rotation for bigs: starters David Lee and Tyler Zeller, and subs Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk. Yesterday, the coach heaped praise on Mickey, a rookie who’s almost sure to spend most of his season in Maine.

Meanwhile, Sullinger is receiving no such attention and is somewhat disappearing. He’s averaging just 13 minutes through three games in the preseason. His playing time didn’t increase against the Nets even though Lee sat out the contest. Despite being a starter last season when healthy, Sullinger hasn’t started during this preseason, nor has he even been the first big off the bench.

He’s also being out-performed by his fellow bigs. Zeller has been solid, Olynyk is playing better than ever, and Lee and Johnson look like terrific additions. Compare them to Sullinger, who shot 7-10 in the opener against a weak Milano squad, but has struggled since. Check these in-game media tweets from last night:

0-for-6, 3 rebounds in 7 minutes for Jared Sullinger. He needs to show way more over the next two weeks. #celtics

— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) October 15, 2015

Jared Sullinger 0 for 4 over six minutes. Only Young and Jones got less playing time in the first half. Everybody else in double figure mins

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) October 15, 2015

We’ve known all along that there’s not enough court time available for everyone. Still, Sullinger is only 23 years old and extremely talented. It’s likely he’ll get back to being productive, so it would be shocking if he was the odd man out. Since we’re not jumping to conclusions, we’ll wait to see if Sully gets more opportunities over the remaining four exhibition games. Or if he is a factor in the season opener, when Olynyk will serve his suspension for the Kevin Love incident. If not, then media and fans will be asking a lot of questions.

If Sullinger is indeed left out of the rotation, it’ll be ironic. He worked hard during the summer to improve his stamina for better late-game effectiveness. It will be a shame if he doesn’t need it.

On Page 2: Amir shoots the three, everybody shoots the three

Johnson was signed by the Celtics for his defensive prowess but showed improved offensive skills in Wednesday’s 109-105 preseason win against Brooklyn, scoring 19 points in 25 minutes, including two 3-pointers.

The 3-point shot has long been a desire for Johnson to add to his arsenal. Toronto coach Dwane Casey made a deal with Johnson: if he played strong defense and was wide open, he could attempt the occasional corner 3-pointer.

The result was 112 attempts over the past two years (39 makes) compared with 29 his first eight NBA seasons. And he perhaps settled the concerns of his new coach Brad Stevens, with his pair of 3’s in the opening period. […]
“Amir hasn’t scored like that every day in practice but he’s been a threat to make shots every day,” Stevens said. “He’s probably made 40 percent of his 3’s in practice. He just knows how to play, on both ends. We saw a bunch of possessions [Wednesday] where he was the one who held the fort together as other people were scrambling.”

Globe – Amir Johnson shows off improved offensive skills for Celtics

Mike, Scal and plenty of TV viewers were surprised when Amir Johnson hit those three-pointers on his way to a strong performance in Brooklyn. On subsequent possessions, Amir leveraged those makes by up-faking and driving to the hoop. That wasn’t surprising; the inside game is more what we expected from the young veteran.

But why is Johnson taking three-pointers instead of mid-range shots? Well, that’s the way the game is played now: pace and space, featuring the running game, ball movement, inside and long-range shots, and less reliance on the mid-range and deep twos.

Of their 109 points, the Celts scored 44 in the paint, 39 from deep, and 16 from the free throw line, so only 10 were from mid-range. Boston was 40-85 in total shooting: 22-41 in the paint, 13-26 on threes, and 5-18 from mid-range.

Seven Celtics made threes in the game. And that’s how it’s gonna be.