Danny Ainge: Celtics looking for more than Kevin Love

BOSTON HERALD

June 22, 2014 

Steve Bulpett

WALTHAM — Things have grown quiet between the Celtics and Minnesota on the Kevin Love front, but that may not be a bad thing.

According to sources, the Timberwolves have been exploring other trade avenues for Love, and it’s been confirmed they are running into some trouble getting what they want from Golden State. That may force Minnesota vice president of basketball operations and coach Flip Saunders to alter his sights, which could bring the local outfit more realistically into play.

As of yesterday, the Celts and Wolves hadn’t spoken since Thursday morning, according to one source with direct knowledge of the situation, though not aligned with either club.

What’s become clear is that for the Celtics to have a chance at dealing for Love, one of two things has to happen — and maybe both. The Celtics have to change their offer, last stated as the Nos. 6 and 17 picks next Thursday, Kelly Olynyk and one of their own future first-rounders, or Saunders has to change what he’s looking for.

One league source said the key for the Celts is getting a more accurate idea of what Minnesota wants from them, while another said the Timberwolves came into this process believing the C’s had nothing they want.

That would leave Danny Ainge in the position of getting a better read from Minnesota and seeing if he can involve another team or more to satisfy Saunders’ needs.

All of which is going on as the Celtics prepare for an extremely important draft. Ainge offered a minor correction on remarks made last Thursday by his son and director of player personnel, Austin, who noted the club was preparing for life with or without a major acquisition.

“We have more than two different scenarios and two different teams,” said the father. “I mean, there’s five different scenarios at least — and by draft day there may be more like seven or eight scenarios. I know what you mean, but what I’m saying is it’s more than that, and it’s always more than that. It’s not that simple or just two scenarios. There’s the rebuild and stay young, there’s (the) try-to-win-now scenario, and there is in between.”

And those situations could multiply after the draft. Whether or not the Celtics are successful in their pursuit of Love, they definitely will try to position themselves for a run at the major players who might opt out and become free agents.

For now, however, Ainge said he remains focused on the draft, though evidence on the Love front indicates his attention is to some degree divided.

“It’s not different than every other year,” said the Celts’ president of basketball operations. “Every year there’s potential trades. There’s potential movement up and down in the draft. So our main focus is just the things we can control in this process, and that’s ranking all the players, knowing who we would take at what position — and at what point do we not want our picks and would try to trade them for future picks.

“We also have to figure out at what point we’d want to trade down to get certain players who are available and where we’d have to be in the draft to get certain players. Some of the guys in office are trying to do the intel part on that, which is challenging. But my main focus is just ranking all the players in the draft.”

It would, however, seem different this time around because there is an All-Star available and the Celtics potentially could have the assets to acquire him.

“There’s always trade possibilities, whether it’s a player we’re looking to trade our draft pick for or any other kind of trade,” countered Ainge. “It’s not really any different. I mean, every year you’re juggling balls, and you go into the draft and you’re not sure if you’re going to draft or you’re going to trade or at what position you’re going to trade. You’ve got to just be prepared for all of that.

“I mean, last year when I walked into the draft room, I had no idea what was going to happen. When I started at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I had no idea I was going to have a trade that day. I knew what the possibility was, but I didn’t think that it was going to happen — and then it happened.

“So last year I traded Paul (Pierce) and KG (Kevin Garnett) and it was a huge deal, and that was probably more time-consuming than this year.”

The point is there are still five days to go until the draft and several miles to travel in the Kevin Love saga.

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Daddy spankee Austin.

Sam