Your Morning Dump… Where Brad Stevens wants to feed Jared Sullinger – the ball.

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.

“Last year, I watched a lot of film with my father and he showed me a lot of clips of what I can do off the dribble,” the Celtics forward said of how he can respond now that opponents respect him as a 3-point shooter, and will actually try to close out hard when he squares up beyond the arc.

The joke in the Celtics locker room is that Sullinger has wasted some great sharpshooting on an exhibition season, which ended with the 100-86 win over Brooklyn last night.

But Sullinger, who grabbed 17 rebounds in 25 minutes as part of a double-double that also included 15 points, has set an interesting tone for his third NBA season.

The 3-pointers that didn’t fall last season, even though Brad Stevens kept exhorting Sullinger to shoot, have drained through over the last month.

“We need him to score,” the Celtics coach said before last night’s game. “He’s one of our best, if not our best scorer. Give him the ball.”

…

Stevens stressed that Sullinger improved in virtually every area. His defense — the source of recurring foul trouble last season — is better. He’s rebounding at an accelerated rate, as evidenced by his eight-game 10.9 rebounding average. He’s been more judicious with his post game. He puts the ball on the floor better.

Herald

I want to temper my enthusiasm about Jared Sullinger until he starts producing these numbers against top notch players, but I’m having difficulty.

He’s only improved his conditioning, shooting, and defense this off-season.

At some point the national analysts are going to have to look past his lack of athleticism and recognize this kid is on the path to becoming a star.

PS – Does anyone else get the hives thinking about those Jim O’Brien teams? I hated his offensive approach. If only Antoine Walker had a coach who anchored him in the post…

Related: ESPN Boston – Sullinger growing into bigger role

On Page 2, Rondo and his padded hand are taking contact in practice.

“So there’s a chance that he would play in the first game,” Stevens said. “I don’t know that I’m willing to sit here and put a percentage on it. As these guys that cover us on a daily basis will tell you, I’ve been wrong on every one of my projections thus far. So I guess I flunked medical school.

“He has increased his practice load, he’s done some drills with contact, he’s done some things and when he has he’s worn a pretty big pad on his hand. So from everything I can tell he will continue to increase that and we’ll find out how often he has to wear the pad or if it can be a little smaller and how that goes. We’re going to go fairly light tomorrow. Harder on Friday. I think we’ll know more after practice Friday.”

There’s a very strong possibility that the pad will get smaller in time during practice as Rondo takes more contact on the hand. There’s also a good chance he wears some kind of protection over that part of his hand when he does return to games.

CSNNE

KWAPT was hiding out in the Garden during last night’s private walk-through and snapped this exclusive photo of Rondo’s new hand pad:

My first crack at this lame joke involved the Hamburger Helper hand, but I assumed our young readers might not know what the hell it was.

The rest of the links:

ESPN Boston – Rapid Reaction: Celtics 100 Nets 86 | CSNNE-  Future is bright for Dwight Powell | Pierce: Days of spending career with 1 team are over | Herald – C’s bomb away to beat Nets | Ainge’s thoughts on draft lottery | Globe – Celtics get Smart performance | WEEI – Why you should care about Wed’s Celtics win