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.

Boston Celtics second-year big man Kelly Olynyk wore a protective boot over his sprained right ankle while meeting with reporters after Thursday’s practice and said he’s uncertain when he’ll resume basketball activities while waiting for pain and swelling to subside.

Olynyk injured the ankle when he landed awkwardly on the foot of Portland’s Thomas Robinson chasing a rebound in last Thursday’s win over the Trail Blazers. Olynyk returned home from the team’s extended road trip for further testing and could be sidelined util late February, especially with an extended All-Star break looming next month.

“It’s tough with something like an ankle, everyone is different,” said Olynyk. “It could be a week, it could be three weeks, it could be a month — you never know. I’m just trying to get better and evaluate it each day, and take the next step whenever it’s deemed necessary.”

Olynyk said he has immersed himself in treatment.

ESPN Boston – Olynyk (ankle) uncertain on return timeline

For the second consecutive season, Kelly Olynyk will need to miss significant time with an ankle injury.  A protective walking boot is never a good thing for a short-term recovery, but hopefully this time Olynyk isn’t hobbled for too long.  Forget bout the Rising Stars game for a second, the C’s need to figure out what they have with Olynyk.  He’s had flashes of good play, followed by games of being essentially invisible.  I still see him as a solid bench player to come in and fill several positions on the floor, due to whatever the game dictates.  For now, he’s resigned to wearing his Air Protective Boot.

Page 2: Rick Pitino still gives C’s fans nightmares

The Louisville coach was nothing but complimentary of Stevens and Celtics president Danny Ainge.

“It’s tough,” Pitino said. “When I took over, they won — I don’t know — 14, 15 games. And [Stevens has] taken over the same type of situation except he has a lot of patience and I had very little.

“He’s gonna do a fabulous job because it’s not gonna get to him, the losing. He understands the journey. He understands it. He’s gonna do a great job. They play competitive, they’re gonna get better, and better, and better.”

“They got themselves, I thought, one of the top three coaches at any level,” Pitino said. “I thought he was always tremendous.”

ESPN Boston – Pitino thinks Stevens is ‘tremendous’

Ahh I can picture it now: the college version of myself sitting in my dorm watching the Celtics put forth another crappy effort.  It was a long 4ish years that Pitino was here but man he left his mark.  And not in a good way.  Every time he’s in or near Boston he has to speak about his time here.  From a fan’s perspective, it was, well… not great.  It was actually brutal because they were never good enough to make the playoffs but were bad enough to be irrelevant. The Pitino Administration is well documented so we don’t need to take the DeLorean back to 1997-2001ish.  But he’s right about one thing: he was impatient. He’s proven he’s a Hall of Fame NCAA coach.  But here, not so much.  Uggghhhh I still get cold sweats and start shaking thinking about those years.

The rest of the links:

ESPN Boston – Impatience masked by Stevens | Practice: Thumbs up from Turner

Boston Globe – Brad Stevens has long been an Andre Dawkins fan | Rick Pitino says Brad Stevens, Celtics on right track

Boston Herald – Rick Pitino likes patience of Brad Stevens

CSNNE – Injury could keep Olynyk out of Rising Stars | Can Celtics apply lessons from trip vs. Rockets?

WEEI – Positive road trip gives hope to Celtics’ playoff odds

MassLive – Rick Pitino: Boston Celtics heads coach Brad Stevens has ‘a lot of patience and I had very little’ | Andre Dawkins reassigned to Maine Red Claws after one practice with the Boston Celtics