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.

Silver revealed Tuesday after meeting with league owners that the NBA is projecting that it will have to write a nearly $500 million shortfall check to the players after the 2016-17 season. There was a shortfall in the players’ guaranteed 50 percent of revenue for this past season, and there could be another one after ’15-’16, as well.

“That’s not, of course, the ideal outcome from our standpoint,” Silver said. “It’s not something we predicted when we went into this collective bargaining agreement.”

Or, viewed another way, it’s what happens when player salaries are capped and business is great.

CBS Sports: Owners the ones to watch in CBA negotiations

This is a good one. The owners are preparing to cry poor because….

…. are you sitting down?

…. they make too much money.

To put it simply, every year, the players get just above 50% of the money the league makes, and the owners get just below 50%. They set a salary cap for the upcoming year, but if, at the end of the year, the salaries don’t actually match half the league’s income, the league has to write the players a check for the difference.

This is akin to getting a tax refund. The owners aren’t paying out of their own pockets. They just got $500 million too much, and they need to give it back to the players. No biggie, right? They still get their cut.

Except…

And, as one league source told me hypothetically, there are going to be a lot of owners who will look at those numbers and say, “If they’re only worth 46 percent, why the hell are we paying them 50?”

Owners are going to sit there and say “these players are making these ridiculous contracts and we STILL owe them money?” Meanwhile there’s no way players take less than 50% of the cut. If teams can’t manage their money well (and many won’t) then it’s up to those teams to figure it out, not the players.

So now it appears BOTH sides may be digging in for a labor showdown. And the timing for the Celtics couldn’t be worse.

The Celtics are trying to build a contender. They’ve got their assets and money and it seems that they’ve got themselves a couple of seasons to get there before we ALL get restless. This season involves building up a group of supporting characters. The Celtics could be good enough to make the playoffs again as a low seed and try, next summer, to lure in the big fish.

The problem is there really is only one big Durant-sized fish in next year’s pool. And if Ainge can’t pull off that magic, then we’re left with another summer of trying to upgrade surrounding talent and going all-in for the “contender or bust” summer of ’17.

Except, the summer of ’17 is also when either side can opt out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The critical, pivotal, “find our superstar or maybe start over with a new GM” summer might not happen. The summer where even someone like me, a patient, “let the process play out” kind of guy, will have had enough waiting…. the summer where we enter the 10th anniversary of the Celtics’ last title… might be the lost summer of the Celtics rebuild.

Will this be like the last time, with a half-assed free agent period and a brutal, shortened season that saw teams play back-to back-to back stretches more than once? Will there even be a season at all? Will we be left standing at the precipice of championship contention only to watch super-rich people fighting over billions of dollars?

Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will work in our favor. Maybe they’ll hammer out a deal and they won’t opt out at all… or the opt-out will only be a technicality. But right now, after Silver’s comments yesterday, it’s clear shots are being fired across the union’s bow. The union’s new leadership is, to put it lightly, not going to take this lightly, nor will they cower. Level heads may prevail, but that’s not looking like the likely scenario at this point.

Related links:  Globe: For NBA, players cashing in could be a problem

Page 2: Marcus Smart is becoming a real leader

Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge is happy with Smart’s progression and how he has handled himself so far.

“Marcus has taken a real leadership role with our group of young guys being here this summer,” said Ainge. “He’s a fierce competitor, his shooting is improving. We couldn’t be more excited with his future.”

CSNNE: Smart has taken a leadership role with Celtics

If you didn’t mark your calendars, we just passed the one-year anniversary of Brad Stevens saying this about Smart, which started the anti-Rondo birds squawking on local blather radio.

“But then you’ve got a guy like Marcus who really shows himself well in all of his work and has a good vocal about him. He just has a natural ability to be what would probably be defined as a guy that a lot of people would say, ‘That looks like a leader to me.’

“And what I’ve seen, he certainly has that ability. That’s his reputation. But, you know, leadership is not something that’s gained in two days. It’s gained through your everyday walk and how you do things, how consistent you are.”

Stevens expects Smart will continue to lead in whatever ways present themselves — by example, verbally, etc.

“Sure,” the coach said. “Does that mean that he has to officially be titled a captain? Does that mean that he has to be officially looked at as a leader by everybody? No. But he can do everything right. He can promote positive energy. He can give to others. That’s what leaders do. You can serve others.

“There’s so many different ways to lead. I think we all get caught up with personality being the No. 1 trait of a leader, and he’s got a great personality. But there are other things that go into it.”

Smart is going into his second year on the Celtics and he’s already one of the longest-tenured players here. He’s going to be in a weird position to be both leader on the floor as a bunch of new guys assemble and try to make this thing work, while taking steps back to listen to a veteran like Amir Johnson and a newly crowned champion in David Lee.

Still, Smart has shown he will lead by example by going a million miles an hour in Summer League games… showing these rookies what it will take to make this team and succeed. And while it’s hard to sit here and declare that a guy playing in the Summer League is now THE leader on the team, he seems to be headed in that direction. The bigger issue is performance on the floor, and smoothing out some of the wrinkles in his game. But we have to remember he was a rookie last season, and this is only the beginning of what we hope is a long, fruitful career in Boston.

And Finally….

The days of division winners being guaranteed home court in the first round are apparently over.

There was no vote Tuesday, though one is expected soon.

“It’s my expectation that that change will be adopted before the beginning of this coming season,” Silver said.

In the past, division winners have been assured of a top-four seed. For example, this past season, Memphis and San Antonio would have been up one spot to No. 4 and No. 5 in the West bracket, while Portland, the Northwest Division winner which had four fewer wins than the Grizzlies and Spurs, would have fallen from No. 4 to No. 6.

San Antonio losing in the first round, ahem… spurred… this change

[pause for laughter]

This was an easy bit of business for the league to adopt. To me, it’s less about better teams being pushed down the board than it is a lower seed catching a huge break in facing a weak division winner.  The 4-5 matchup out west should have been San Antonio and Memphis. The Clippers would have face Portland… and theoretically would have had an easier time, and maybe they would have gotten past Houston. Meanwhile, San Antonio could have beaten Memphis and faced Golden State in the second round.

You can make a solid argument for a lot of different scenarios there, and one of those might have been Golden State losing to the Spurs. Obviously it’s all hypothetical, but this was something that most people agreed needed fixing.

Now if only the rest of the league’s business could be fixed so quickly.

Related links:  Herald: Few changes expected for 15-16 in NBA  |  WEEI: NBA likely to change seeding rules

The rest of the links:

Globe: Datome agrees to 3-year deal in Turkey  |  Herald: Jerebko back at it  |  Young tests knee on stairs  |  Boston acquires Perry Jones  |  CSNNE: Thornton making most of minutes  |  Celtics acquire Jones for 2nd round pick  |  Former assistant Adams says Lee a great fit  | Datome wasn’t a star, but he’ll always be a Celtic  |  Rozier proving worth while Young battles injury  |  ESPN Boston: ESPY Day auction: Bid on courtside seats  |  Thunder trim tax bill  |  MassLive: Mickey offers Celtics much-needed rim protection  |  Ainge: Jones a much different player than rest of roster |  Jerebko: I think we can be a lot better than we were