The list of potential suitors for Kevin Love continues to grow by the day, but rumors about one particular team have heated up over the past 24 hours. The Boston Celtics did not have the luck of the Irish with them at the NBA Draft lottery on Tuesday night, which has been the norm throughout team history. Will that inspire Danny Ainge to make a run at Love?
The Celtics came away with the No. 6 pick in the lottery. They also have the 17th overall pick thanks to their blockbuster trade with the Brooklyn Nets. The Minnesota Timberwolves could be interested in those picks and/or future Celtics draft picks if they decide to move Love. According to Comcast SportsNet basketball analyst Tim Welsh, Love would be open to going to Boston.
“(Love) wants to play for an organization that’s going to be a winning organization; not necessarily I have to go to a championship team now, but a team that’s going to be built to move in that direction,” Welsh said, via CSNNE.com’s A. Sherrod Blakely. “Maybe it’ll take a couple years. That’s OK. But he needs a change from Minnesota.
“He is not one of those guys that’s saying, ‘I want to go to Miami. I want to go to L.A.,’ the hype cities. Now would he prefer L.A.? His girlfriend lives there. She’s an actress. He went to college there (at UCLA). He was born there. But he’s a professional. He wants to go where there’s the best opportunity for him which would be in a winning organization and he respects the history of the Celtics.”
To make matters more interesting, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge told “The Toucher and Rich Show” on Wednesday that he would be open to trading for a high-caliber player in the last year of his contract without an agreement to an extension. As you know, Love is in the final year of his deal and has informed the T-Wolves that he will not re-sign with them.
The Celtics don’t have much on their roster beyond Rajon Rondo. What they can offer Love is Ainge’s history of being aggressive to acquire the pieces his team needs. In 2007, Boston was disappointed to receive the No. 5 pick in the draft lottery. They used it to draft Jeff Green, who they packaged for Ray Allen, and later acquired Kevin Garnett. A championship immediately followed.
How likely is Love to go to Boston? About as likely as he is to go to any other city, and it’s too early to tell. If anyone can make it happen, it’s Ainge.
