Celtics not as enamored with Kevin Love as last summer

In this morning's Boston Herald, Steve Bulpett wrote about the Boston Celtics and their level of interest in Kevin Love. Last offseason, Danny Ainge was throwing nearly every asset the Celtics had at Minnesota in hopes of bringing Love to Boston, and pairing him with Rajon Rondo to avoid a long rebuild.

Ainge didn't get Love, and instead of trying to round out the roster it was decided Rondo and Jeff Green would be traded. Getting Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas worked out better than we anticipated, and then the Celtics somehow made the playoffs in the middle of an attempted rebuild, but were handily dismissed by the Cleveland Cavaliers. A franchise player would be the perfect compliment to this team of role players and overachievers. The Celtics do not think that Kevin Love is necessarily a franchise player at this moment.

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 by 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.

His knee injury, shoulder injury, off year in Cleveland (possibly with an ailing back as well), and Danny's trove of picks and assets make the idea of sinking them all into the Kevin Love basket a little more risky than last year. Bulpett does mention a Celtics source maintains the club has interest in Love, but by all accounts it seems to have cooled since last year.

I think Love would play great in Brad Stevens style of offense, and if the Celtics could get a rim protector and a wing to catch his touchdown pass outlets, even better. The question is if they can't, what is the ceiling on this team if we max out Love and he isn't playing better than he did for Cleveland? I have no clue and am glad it's not my job to make these decisions. Go get em, Danny.


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