(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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.

Put those pieces together and there’s no reason why Horford shouldn’t develop a strong connection with Isaiah Thomas. Thomas checked out as an elite pick-and-roll scorer last season ( 72.8 percentile ) despite having Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Zeller and Amir Johnson as running mates. In Horford, he has someone who complements his ability to get in the paint, which should help them form a dominant one-two punch in the Eastern Conference. Sullinger made 41.5 percent of his open jump shots last season, for example, whereas Horford made 46.3 percent of his. That extra spacing will open up Boston’s offense significantly.

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“It’s going to mesh,” Crowder told Mass Live . “Most guys have to blend in and fit in, but it’s going to be automatically just there. The style he plays, that’s what we reiterated to him: The way we play fits you so well. We need you. You need us. Let’s make it happen.”

Sporting News – Al Horford brings Celtics a step closer to NBA title contention

Al Horford is not a superstar. If Danny Ainge had somehow swung a deal for Horford in the immediate aftermath of the KG/Paul Brooklyn trade, the 13-14 Celtics would not have been a playoff team. Horford’s never been to the NBA Finals, hasn’t finished in the top three in MVP voting and doesn’t have thousands of little, middle school minions wearing his jersey to games– neither did Tim Duncan, but Horford isn’t him, either.

The facts of the paragraph above are why some people were less than satisfied by Danny Ainge’s work this off-season. Biggie said to only make moves if you heart is in it. In the NBA, Ainge’s critics are yelling “only make moves if a title comes with it.” If Horford himself isn’t going to push the Celtics into that thin crust at the top, why make marginal moves?

Rafferty’s piece on Horford and his fit with the Cs is Zach Lowe-ian in nature– I highly suggest reading it in its entirety. You pay Horford to come here because of what he’ll free up the rest of this burgeoning roster to do. The guys around Horford are younger and come with more potential for growth here in Boston than they would have in Atlanta.

Al’s gonna Al. He’s going to provide steady defense in the paint, stay with like-sized and some smaller players on the perimeter, he’s going to be a great roll man on offense, set nasty picks, hit about half of his open jumpers and even take a guy off the the dribble every once in a while. He’s going to do everything pretty well– not superstar well.

What’s more important is what he does for the other guys on this team who are going through their own growth regardless of Horford’s presence. Horford on the team should expedite that growth both as an on and off court presence. I said earlier that Horford isn’t Duncan, but his understated, yet competitive demeanor should be infectious in the same way TD’s was in San Antonio. There’s the potential for a cultural shift here on a team that already has a solid culture to begin with.

Horford’s presence intertwining with the natural progression of the Celtics’ young players should be no more evident than in the case of the guy on page 2…

On page 2, signs are there for better O from Smart

“(I’m planning on) becoming more of an offensive threat,” Smart told Celtics.com

Smart’s offense was generally a train wreck, but there are some interesting things in the data, via Synergy Sports.

Smart shot 23 percent on catch-and-shoot shots, an absolutely abysmal percentage for the highest efficiency jump shots possible. In isolation, he shot 25.9 percent. It was all bad. Oddly, Smart shot a very decent 40 percent out of the pick and roll as the ball-handler, which put him in the 50th percentile, and he shot 19-of-44 (43 percent) on jumpers in such sets.

Here’s the really crazy part, though: Smart was very good at off-the-dribble jumpers. One of the more difficult shots in basketball, he was 81st percentile, shooting 40 percent in the half-court. Basically, in efficient situations, Smart was a disaster, and in inefficient situations, he was decent-to-very good, although in small samples.

This gives you confidence that some of this he can move beyond and develop. In catch-and-shoot situations, barring a major problem in his jumper (he has a hitch but it’s not a Ricky Rubio situation), one can generally improve with repetition. Avery Bradley, his back-court partner, underwent the same kind of development.

CBSSports – If Celtics’ Marcus Smart is going to make a leap, this is the year to do it

Many of Boston’s bloggers who partook in Chris Forsberg’s Summer Forecast found a way to include Marcus Smart in one of the categories about potential– “Most likely to overachieve,” “storyline of the year,” “most likely All-Star,” “most likely post-season award winner.” Some of this is just the way we’re conditioned to think about lottery picks hitting their third season, but much of it comes by way of hard, on-court evidence. In much the same way you could almost see Rajon Rondo’s confidence growing year-by-year in Boston, you can see the swagger that Smart built up last year. His performance –though not always efficient– in the Atlanta series cannot be overstated. Smart grew up a bit in that series, and count me among those who think he’s going to really make the leap this year.

It’ll need to come on the offensive end, where he would head-scratchingly hit off-balance, corner three pointers with seeming regularity, but lay bricks on open jumpers. The numbers that Matt Moore shares lends credence to this phenomenon. Smart really should spend as much time with Avery Bradley as possible, who was a wretched shooter early in his career, yet has worked tirelessly on his craft to become a dependable, mid-to-long range shooter coming off of screens at the top of the key.

Marcus Smart’s development is the difference between losing in 4 or 5 games to Cleveland in May, or taking it to 6 or 7. It’s what I’m most looking forward to as the start of training camp creeps closer.

And finally, David Lee= Ballot Stuffer

How did HE get on this list!?

Respondents were asked to pick the Celtics player they most admire for what that player contributed to 2015-16 season. Not surprisingly, first-time All-Star Isaiah Thomas topped the list with 59 percent of the vote.Avery Bradley (11 percent), Jae Crowder (9 percent) and Evan Turner (5 percent) made sense behind Thomas. The head-scratcher: David Lee, who was cut loose in February after a less-than-memorable four months with the team, improbably received 3 percent of the vote.

ESPN – Survey Says: Boston Celtics headed in right direction

I would have bet money that Harambe would get more votes for this category than David Lee. Maybe there was a clause in Lee’s contract that he’d get a $5 million bonus if he made it onto this list, leading to the Lee family embarking on a grassroots campaign throughout the Bay State with Lee stumping from the Berkshires to the North Shore.

This has to be some sort of mistake, right?