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.

Celtics renounced Jared Sullinger’s qualifying offer & exception rights, per NBA transaction wire on July 8. Source confirmed it’s accurate.

— Kevin O’Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) July 10, 2016

This little nugget comes as a bit of surprise at this point of free agency.

For those who don’t know what this means… the Celtics made Jared Sullinger the qualifying offer last month, a mechanism for guys at the end of their rookie deals that makes them a restricted free agent. That move is what gives the Celtics a right to match any offer sheet he might get from another team. Rescinding that and his exception rights mean he’s now an unrestricted free agent, free to go and sign with any team.

Now… technically this means Boston can still sign him, but they’ve given up his Bird rights too with this move, so he’d have to be signed with available cap space. So while there is a technical possibility that could happen, there is little reason to believe the Celtics would do something like this just to sign him with cap space. 

Celtics roughly $3.7m under the cap with Jared Sullinger renounced. Sullinger now a UFA and can sign with any team.

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 10, 2016

The reality of this is Sullinger is now free to go talk to teams and sign wherever. The Celtics, meanwhile, clear a $5.6 million dollar cap hold off their books and open up a roster spot. This could mean anything from Guerschon Yabusele making enough of an impact so far to be seen as the new Sully to keeping enough cap space open to absorb a contract in a trade. There are currently 12 players with guaranteed contracts, but this doesn’t include Jaylen Brown or any of the other first rounders or Tyler Zeller, the remaining restricted free agent.

People seem to be split on Jared Sullinger but, in reality, he was a good player for Boston. Yes, he took too many 3’s without really shooting it well enough to be a threat, and his conditioning has remained an issue, but he rebounded at a pretty high level and he was part of some of Boston’s best lineups this past season. There is definitely a spot for him in the NBA, but apparently not in Boston anymore.

We’ve definitely not heard the last of Sullinger. Maybe watching bigs get truckloads of money while he gets the scraps will be enough of a motivation to get him to that next level. If this is a wakeup call for him, then hopefully he can have a nice, long NBA career. On a personal level, I probably liked Sullinger more than most, but I get why this move had to be made. As Sully tweeted himself, and now we can probably deduce that he was talking about this, change is coming.

Page 2: Larry Bird can’t fathom Kevin Durant’s decision

“I know back in the day, I couldn’t imagine going to the Lakers and playing with Magic Johnson. I’d rather try to beat him,” Bird said. “I could never imagine myself going and joining another team with great players, because I had great players and I was in a great situation.”

ESPN: Larry Bird ‘couldn’t imagine’ joining Magic Johnson and Lakers

You can hear the full quote in context here so you can tell exactly how Larry said this:

Larry comes from a different era. He acknowledges that guys are different today… that they’re in a different system and a different era. Larry was set up pretty well in Boston, and never would have needed to go anywhere else to play with better teammates. He played on what was one of the best teams ever assembled in the NBA (the 1986 champions), and was in constant contention for practically his entire career.

Today, there are more teams and there is more money. Talent is more spread out and the max contracts have guys chasing big paydays all over. The rules are different now as well. There was no luxury tax that threatened to decimate teams like the repeater tax provision does today.

And there was no widespread AAU system like kids have today where sneaker companies heavily finance traveling teams where young stars from around the country get to know each other at very young ages and develop friendships.

Personally, I’m much more of the Larry Bird mindset than the Kevin Durant mindset, but I’ve never begrudged KD’s decision to join the Warriors. Free agents are free to do what they want to do, and that’s what he wanted to do. Golden State had the money, so that’s that.

And frankly, if my friends and I were in the NBA and we had an opportunity to play together on the same team, I would absolutely consider it. If we could all get paid really well and have some fun on the same team? That sounds pretty amazing to me.

Who knows how Larry would feel if he was coming up in today’s game. Larry’s a unique guy, so he might not be the best example, but there are plenty of guys from that era that would make some of the decisions these guys are making now. They just grew up and played in a different time when the mentality was different.

Related links: CSNNE: Thomas upset by Durant’s choice, but understands it  |  Bird on Durant: “couldn’t imagine going to the Lakers and playing with Magic”  |  Thomas deals with Durant’s decision, looks at his own payday

And finally….

…. That All Star appearance really paid off for Isaiah Thomas and the Celtics

“He’s the guy that kind of asked about how’s Boston like,” Thomas said Saturday while taking in some Celtics summer league basketball at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion. “I didn’t know he was that interested, but I knew for him to come to me and ask me that, I knew it was in the back of his head at least.”

Even if it began as a harmless conversation, that means the recruiting started in February. By the time it continued with a free-agency meeting early this month, Thomas believed Horford was seriously considering a relocation to New England. And after sitting down with the four-time All-Star, Thomas figured the Celtics had done enough to convince Horford to leave the Atlanta Hawks.

MassLive: Al Horford started asking Isaiah Thomas about the Boston Celtics at All-Star weekend

Remember this?

#IsaiahThomas says a player, who he will not name, asked him about Boston… As in that player is interested in joining the Celtics.

— Marc D’Amico (@Marc_DAmico) February 13, 2016

Yep, that was Al Horford… which many of us deduced when we saw this on our TV screens…

It’s amazing to me how much these guys talk at things like this. Continuing on from the previous item and guys going to other teams… this is part of how those changes happen. Conversations at All Star games and Team USA practices. These guys all have questions about other cities and the situations and they can get straight answers from guys that will help them make decisions.

So we should be making a huge push to get Isaiah back into the All Star game next February too (hopefully IT continues playing like he did last year) so he can get in the ears of all those guys who will be free agents next summer. Isaiah is our #1 recruiter at this point.

Related links: CSNNE: Thomas: Horford is going to help our team immediately  |  MassLive: NBA coach: Horford will make Thomas even better

The rest of the links:

CSNNE: Thomas on contract: They better back up the Brinks truck

ESPN Boston: Thomas: Celtics need more offseason moves

WEEI: Jaylen Brown struggles in return to summer league action

MassLive: Yabusele stands out in loss to Bulls  |  Thomas discusses meeting Tom Brady, missing out on Durant, and hopes to add more talent

Globe: Isaiah Thomas can’t wait to get started  |  Yabusele impresses in loss  |  Picture brightening for Suns’ McDonough  |  Increased salary cap has already taken its toll

Herald: Lue draws on time as Celtics assistant  |  Celtics loss has Jamie Young restless  |  Celtics lure still tugs at Kevin McHale