The price of Kevin Love: How many draft picks are too many?

It's pretty well established, Boston fans want Kevin Love and they want him NOW.

Love's little excursion to Beantown this past weekend ratcheted up the whole conversation of trading for the superstar from speculation to a bonafide possibility.

Now that Love looks like a player who could totally be wearing green next season, the question remains, what's the right price for him? Since Boston doesn't have a ton of up-and-coming players on their roster, Jared Sullinger aside, the meat of any trade for Love is going to depend on draft picks. It just so happens, Boston has a literal metric ton of them.

So how many should Boston give up? What would it take and what are you okay with sending off? These were some of the questions the writers at CelticsLife tackled in an email chain Monday.

For your consideration:

Padraic O'Connor: I'm hearing 4 #1's and Sully is the price for love.

Mark Vandeusen: Where? And if it includes the lottery pick it's too much.

Julian Edlow: I was under the impression 4 1sts and sully was the price all along?

Padraic: I was operating under the idea that it was Olynyk, Sully, and a combo of picks.

Eric Blaisdell: Is four firsts really too much though? Let's say it's the #6 pick, the Clippers pick in 2015 or Boston's that year and two future firsts from Boston. The Celtics would still have #17, a first next year and all of Brooklyn's picks. Their cupboard would be far from bare and they get one of the best players in the game at his position in his prime. Even worst case scenario, giving up #6, #17 and two Brooklyn picks, would leave Boston with two firsts next year, all their own picks going forward and one Brooklyn pick.

Julian: I’m with Eric on this one… not as bad as it sounds.

Michael Dyer: Pretty sure that would be the highest price paid in NBA history for anyone. I want to see another team approach anything like the #6 pick, the #17 pick and two potential great Brooklyn picks + a good young PF with a cheap contract before I even think of offering that. Overpaying to that degree just isn't good business.

The Lakers have one pick, the Suns have a bunch of lower picks but nothing that approaches the #6 pick in terms of value, so they'd need to offer like 6 firsts to equal that package, Houston same thing..G-State has no picks. That just seems like the Rangers giving A-Rod $250 million for the sake of it when the next best offer was $175M. Overkill

Eric: Oh I agree it's a shit ton, but Boston is in such great shape going forward, they can easily afford it and not mortgage their future. Those other teams can also offer more established talent than Boston. Would you rather have guys you know will produce or picks you hope work out?

Michael: It depends on what Minny values, but I think a team going into (another) rebuild would rather have cost controlled guys than pay Chandler Parsons $10 million starting next year, or pay Klay Thompson $12 million. If any of these teams had a true superstar to dangle it would worry me, but they really don't. Thompson/Lee (who's 31/32), or Parsons and a few picks in the 20s just don't seem to be in the same stratosphere as Sully/#6/#17/2 big time lottery tickets. Of course another team could rise out of nowhere with a top-ten pick and more and then the price may reach that, but that's a crazy price to me

Julian: Mike, I think it is overkill too, but could happen for a couple reasons. 1. They know how desperate we are to get Love. We may need him to keep Rondo, and unless Ainge trades for Love he’s not coming here. 2. They know that Minnesota is becoming known for handing Boston stars. They are going to ask for more this time around because they know we have more. Even though 3 picks could be the best offer, they want to makeup for the KG deal and not look like fools so will try and push it to 4 picks and Sully. Doesn’t necessarily make sense, but could see it happening.

Michael: Saunders needs to take the best deal, I don't think he can afford to take a worse deal or make Boston pay a premium because Ainge won a deal with another GM 7 years ago. Think about it, does sending him to GState/Phoenix/Houston, in conference, for less really make sense? If anything I think the Western Conference teams need to pay the premium, not Boston.

Julian: I hear you. Not saying the deal makes sense. But Minny knows a trade is the only way Boston can land him. The threat of keeping him and seeing what’s there at the deadline could scare Ainge into saying “fuck it” we need to get this done, and like Eric said, have enough picks to overpay. I hope it doesn’t happen but I could really see it happening. Just a gut feeling, nothing else I have to go on. Plus, for everyone that crushes Ainge for overpaying, he will be praised by 10 people celebrating having Love here talking about how Danny did it again.

Matt Richissin: I wrote this before, and it might be worth bringing up again:

It'll be hard for them to lose another Star Power Forward, and to Boston none-the-less. But, and this is worth revisiting, the Garnett trade wasn't the colossal steal for us that it's often made out to be. Minnesota straight blew every asset they got. They traded Al Jefferson (for what turned to be Chase Budinger and Kosta Koufos), Drafted Jonny Flynn with the 4th pick in the 2008 draft (in a PG heavy draft that had Steph Curry, Brandon Jennings, Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson and Jeff Teague go after him), Let go Of Gerald Green (well, that's kinda fair), and ended up drafting Wayne Ellington in 2009 (in front of Danny Green, Marcus Thornton and Chase Budinger just to name a few) . The blood is on David Kahn's hands, not Kevin McHale's. And really, it's what's forcing them to have to trade Love now.

Mark: I want to see it happen without the #6 pick involved. I still think it can be done, like Dyer said, I think we can still field the best offer without it.

Julian: Mark, think about this if you are the Wolves though. How do you not demand the 6th pick? If this was reversed we would all be crushing Ainge if he didn’t get that pick back in return. Agree they can give a good offer without it. I just feel that this time around is going to be much tougher to get what we all want.

Mark: fair point


What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments section.

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