Celtics Unlikely To Pursue Kevin Love As Hard As Last Offseason

Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics no longer have the "borderline obsession" with Kevin Love that they had last summer, according to sources.

Ainge still has "affection" for Love, but he feels like the situation has changed.

The Celtics are also even a bigger longshot to acquire Love than they were last offseason when he was on the trade block by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Last summer, Ainge was attempting to avoid a deeper rebuild and add Love to Rajon Rondo.

“I think he wants to be in a good situation,” said one league exec from outside this area. “But I also think he’s concerned about his health, so he wants to get a good long-term contract. I still think he stays in Cleveland.”

STEVE BULPETT/BOSTON HERALD

Last offseason we told you a Kevin Love-to-the-Celtics trade was a non-starter because Minnesota simply didn’t want what the C’s were offering. And Flip Saunders proved wise in waiting, extracting top overall pick Andrew Wiggins from Cleveland for his patience.

This year, even though Love’s path to Boston could seemingly be more clear -- all he has to do is opt out of the final year of his contract, not wait out a trade -- things have gotten significantly more problematic from a Celtics point of view.

According to all sources, Danny Ainge still has affection for Love, but it’s not nearly the borderline obsession that was in play last summer.

Times change. Rosters change. The old flame doesn’t necessarily burn as brightly.

While all Celtics/Love talk may be rendered moot anyway if the Cavaliers present him with a big-money extension, the general circumstances here make it perhaps even more of a longshot that he plays his 2015-16 home games in Boston. The major difference is that last year Ainge was doing everything he could to avoid the deeper rebuild that came when he didn’t get Love and was fated to trade away Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green. (And as it turned out, the Celtic president of basketball operations was in many ways fortunate to be able to find palatable deals for those two.)

The idea last year was to try to pair Love and Rondo, giving the Celts a solid two-All-Star base around which to build and presenting Rondo with a reason to stay when he reached free agency this summer. So, as we noted even before the Timberwolves got their deal, no Love meant no Rondo.

Had Ainge been able to whet Saunders’ appetite and acquired Love, the Celts would have worked harder to fill in gaps with capable veterans that would have meant a higher Eastern Conference seed and more than a four-game stay at the postseason party.

That the C’s got to the playoffs anyway is to their everlasting credit -- and Ainge’s chagrin. But the roster reshuffle may actually have them further from contention now than this past season.

Isaiah Thomas is an extremely nice addition, as is Jae Crowder. And Marcus Smart is young, improving and very much a gamer. But there is not an assist machine (Rondo) and explosive if maddeningly inconsistent wing scorer (Green) to put with Love.

And from all indications, Love is not seen as a foundational player upon whom to build. Further, sources say his knee issues are bound to have an impact on his basketball longevity and effectiveness.

“I think he wants to be in a good situation,” said one league exec from outside this area. “But I also think he’s concerned about his health, so he wants to get a good long-term contract. I still think he stays in Cleveland.”

There is every reason to believe the Cavaliers will be fine if Love wants a new deal or takes his option to play next year at $16.7 million and then sees what happens in the summer of ‘16 when the NBA salary cap makes its dramatic rise based on the new national television contracts. But you might wonder how Cleveland will feel if it wins the championship with Tristan Thompson growing in prominence in Love’s place and realizes it could still have the younger and cheaper Andrew Wiggins combining with Kyrie Irving as support for the 30-year-old LeBron James as he takes the turn and moves to his back nine.

The Celtics will very likely wind up an afterthought as Love examines his options in the next two months, but a source with direct knowledge insists the club does hold interest for the All-Star forward.

But where last summer the C’s were perfectly fine with throwing picks and players at Minnesota for Love and then giving him a large contract extension when allowed, they are said to be more careful this time around.

Add into that the uncertainty of what can happen between now and the end of draft night when the Celtics have two picks in each round and the potential for major trades. The chance that the roster could be altered significantly is very real, bringing with it the potential for yet another perspective.

So, yeah, when it comes to the Celtics’ summer of 2015, Love is complicated.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/238120/Celtics-Unlikely-To-Pursue-Kevin-Love-As-Hard-As-Last-Offseason

That's fine by me.


bob


.

Me too.  Defense first.

Sam

We dodged a bullet, if we had signed him to a max contract with his knees and injury history, and been stuck with Rondo and the pathetic Jeff Green....and STILL no rim protection.