The Kevin Love Thread: Update PG. 67, 78

[kulaz3000]

If the Bulls have (rightfully) put forward a good package for Love, does that mean they're no longer confident they can get Melo? Sure, GarPax has to explore all of our options and would gladly take either of the two but this doesn't scream confidence in getting Melo.

If we could get Kevin Love this summer, I'd be ecstatic. Glad that a national reporter has it on decent authority (hopefully) that the Bulls have put together a better offer than Boston.

I don't think that's the thinking at all. The thinking is likely that between Love and Melo, the former if available would be available prior to Melo being on the market as we could make a deal with the Wolves on draft night. So instead of waiting on Melo, why not go after Love when you have the chance and THEN look to acquire Melo in free agency.

You get either player that you can get, and if it's Love you go for it. No point being cute and putting yourself in a position to miss out on both. Plus, even terms of securing either player long term, I'd be more comfortable with acquiring Love and the chances of him signing with us long terms, as opposed to Melo signing with us because the guy clearly has other agendas on his mind in terms of what he wants out our basketball aside from a winning situation.

That said, in an ideal situation if I had to choose between the two I'd choose Melo.

[imagge]

Wait what, some of ya'll think that the Bulls offer wouldn't include Taj if they believe the Bulls offer is better than the Celtics offer?

If this rumor is true, you can bet that Taj is on the table along with both our draft picks, as well as the Kings pick and likely Jimmy as well. I'd bet the deal includes both Boozer, Taj and 2 x first round picks from this year, as well as the Kings pick with us obtaining Love and one of their crappier contracts.

Boozer and Taj plus pick and/or Mirotic for Love and K Mart please.

Rose
KMart
Butler
Love
Noah

[Ben]

Surprised to hear that we've offered them something, which happens to be better than Boston's.

Interesting...

Or Minny is just using us to get the Celts to throw in more players/picks.

Yeah, I find it pretty hard to believe that anything we could offer short of Noah and Rose would seem better than Boston's. As the WT says, BOS could offer better draft picks-- 6, 17, plus some future stuff-- and Jared Sullinger, who I don't consider a "role player" but a very young and promising big man. For our offer to seem better to MN, they would have to want Niko and think that he'll sign with them (or they would have to be convinced that the Bulls can trade Niko for an asset that MN wants), and they would have to value Taj quite a lot, and they probably would have to be dumping someone on us.

I'd be pretty surprised if the Bulls have made an offer so good that it would take us out of the running for Melo, simply b/c we've been hearing that Melo is priority #1.

So my guess about that WT is like yours: it's just Minny posturing for more stuff. It's not clear that Boston has actually offered all of the assets that they COULD offer, and Minny may just want to light a fire.

(Or the whole report could be smoke or BS.)

[kulaz3000]

Wait what, some of ya'll think that the Bulls offer wouldn't include Taj if they believe the Bulls offer is better than the Celtics offer?

If this rumor is true, you can bet that Taj is on the table along with both our draft picks, as well as the Kings pick and likely Jimmy as well. I'd bet the deal includes both Boozer, Taj and 2 x first round picks from this year, as well as the Kings pick with us obtaining Love and one of their crappier contracts.

Boozer and Taj plus pick and/or Mirotic for Love and K Mart please.

Rose
KMart
Butler
Love
Noah

I'm thinking it's more along the lines of, Boozer + Taj + 16 + 19 + Kings pick for Love + Budinger + Luc Mbah A Moute, which I'd still do in a split second.

Not a fan of Luc, but if healthy Budinger could be helpful to us. Still, we'd still need to round out our roster with a few other moves though.

[Proven_Winner]

How could we throw out a better offer? The Celtics had to offer something like Jeff Green+ 2014 1st+Kelly Olynk or Jared Sullinger+ future picks.

Can we really give something better than that.

[Repeat 3-peat]

How could we throw out a better offer? The Celtics had to offer something like Jeff Green+ 2014 1st+Kelly Olynk or Jared Sullinger+ future picks.

Can we really give something better than that.

Taj, Mirotic, 16th+19 pick, Kings pick, our 1st 2015 pick & maybe Snell.

They might like Mirotic to go along with their two other euroleague players in Ricky Rubio and Nikola Peković

[fleet]

Mirotic I guess. We accept it as Gospel that he wouldn't play anywhere but the Bulls, but you never really know.

[johnnyvann840]

How could we throw out a better offer? The Celtics had to offer something like Jeff Green+ 2014 1st+Kelly Olynk or Jared Sullinger+ future picks.

Can we really give something better than that.

This is what I was thinking when I saw this.. I mean, seriously? Am I reading this correctly, or is it just poorly written? So, according to this, the Bulls have offered BETTER than #6, #17, the BKN picks(???) Jared Sullinger AND Jeff Green.

However, the Minnesota Timberwolves are less than enamored with what the Celtics can offer them in a potential trade for Love. The Celtics could offer the No. 6 draft pick, the future selections from the Brooklyn Nets, the No. 17 pick and a combination of role players such as Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger.

The Timberwolves reportedly believe they have already fielded better trade offers, including from the Chicago Bulls.

is this real?

[othawhitemeat]

I mean in this year's draft, Mirotic might be pick #5. Add Mirotic plus either Taj (or if we traded up for a pick) and traded that pick along with Mirotic and Butler and that to me is better than what the Celts could offer. Basically two top 10 draft picks and Butler. O'Lynk and Sullinger are okay, but Butler is a better player than both. Am I saying that is what we are offering? No, but other than the Warriors offering Klay Thompson straight up, I don't know what better offer is out there. Even though, while Thompson is really freaking good, Mirotic, a top 8 pick in this draft (from Taj), and Butler on cheap is a really good deal!

[Hans Embiid]

If we offer Mirotic, Gibson, Butler and picks thats alot better than the Boston offer.

[johnnyvann840]

I mean in this year's draft, Mirotic might be pick #5. Add Mirotic plus either Taj (or if we traded up for a pick) and traded that pick along with Mirotic and Butler and that to me is better than what the Celts could offer. Basically two top 10 draft picks and Butler. O'Lynk and Sullinger are okay, but Butler is a better player than both. Am I saying that is what we are offering? No, but other than the Warriors offering Klay Thompson straight up, I don't know what better offer is out there. Even though, while Thompson is really freaking good, Mirotic, a top 8 pick in this draft (from Taj), and Butler on cheap is a really good deal!

According to that MacMullen piece, Boston is offering #6, #17, Sullinger, Green and the 2016 AND 2018 1st round picks of BKN That's four 1st round picks including a top 6 this year and two decent pieces for a team like the Wolves. Can we really beat that? Should we?

[johnnyvann840]

http://espn.go.com/boston/story/_/id/11 ... -slam-dunk

[Proven_Winner]

How could we throw out a better offer? The Celtics had to offer something like Jeff Green+ 2014 1st+Kelly Olynk or Jared Sullinger+ future picks.

Can we really give something better than that.

This is what I was thinking when I saw this.. I mean, seriously? Am I reading this correctly, or is it just poorly written? So, according to this, the Bulls have offered BETTER than #6, #17, the BKN picks(???) Jared Sullinger AND Jeff Green.

However, the Minnesota Timberwolves are less than enamored with what the Celtics can offer them in a potential trade for Love. The Celtics could offer the No. 6 draft pick, the future selections from the Brooklyn Nets, the No. 17 pick and a combination of role players such as Jeff Green and Jared Sullinger.

The Timberwolves reportedly believe they have already fielded better trade offers, including from the Chicago Bulls.

is this real?

I don't think we can match that offer without giving away key pieces plus picks plus mirotic. For that price I would not trade for Love.

[6_Rings]

If we offer Mirotic, Gibson, Butler and picks thats alot better than the Boston offer.

I agree. All for Love.

[Ben]

I mean in this year's draft, Mirotic might be pick #5. Add Mirotic plus either Taj (or if we traded up for a pick) and traded that pick along with Mirotic and Butler and that to me is better than what the Celts could offer. Basically two top 10 draft picks and Butler. O'Lynk and Sullinger are okay, but Butler is a better player than both. Am I saying that is what we are offering? No, but other than the Warriors offering Klay Thompson straight up, I don't know what better offer is out there. Even though, while Thompson is really freaking good, Mirotic, a top 8 pick in this draft (from Taj), and Butler on cheap is a really good deal!

According to that MacMullen piece, Boston is offering #6, #17, Sullinger, Green and the 2016 AND 2018 1st round picks of BKN That's four 1st round picks including a top 6 this year and two decent pieces for a team like the Wolves. Can we really beat that? Should we?

The article didn't say that Boston IS offering those assets, only that those assets comprise the list of things that Boston COULD offer. (FWIW, I view Green as a slight negative given the difference b/w his on-court performance and his contract-- $18.4M over 2 years.) As has been suggested already, Minny could just be trying to get Boston to offer more of their available assets than they've already done. Olynyk + Sullinger are both intriguing young bigs. IMO, we can't possibly compete with Boston asset-wise if they go all-in. One question will be: will they go all-in, and if not, how far will they go?

[Magilla_Gorilla]

Jeff Green is a significantly overpaid role player. Jared Sullinger is a nice young player who has a history of back issues and is terribly inefficient for a big man. The real key to the Celtics offer is the draft picks - but what if that's not what Minny is looking for?

If Minny wants NBA ready players, contributors to a team looking to the playoffs then Taj/Butler might be more what they are interested in. Add those two with some draft picks and Mirotic and maybe from Minny's perspective that is the better deal.

Hell - maybe Minny has enough of a hard-on for Mirotic that he trumps any prospect Boston could send their way.

Might be we are also more willing to take back a contract (like Kevin Martins).

Taj / Mirotic / #16 / #19 / 2015 #1 for Love / Martin

[johnnyvann840]

The article didn't say that Boston IS offering those assets, only that those assets comprise the list of things that Boston COULD offer. (FWIW, I view Green as a slight negative given the difference b/w his on-court performance and his contract-- $18.4M over 2 years.) As has been suggested already, Minny could just be trying to get Boston to offer more of their available assets than they've already done. Olynyk + Sullinger are both intriguing young bigs. IMO, we can't possibly compete with Boston asset-wise if they go all-in. One question will be: will they go all-in, and if not, how far will they go?

Thanks Ben. After I read the entire Jackie M. article I realized that I got deceived once again by WT poorly representing an original article. I also agree that Green at that price is a negative. Olynik and Sully with #6 and a few other 1st' rounders would be a good haul for them.

[johnnyvann840]

Jeff Green is a significantly overpaid role player. Jared Sullinger is a nice young player who has a history of back issues and is terribly inefficient for a big man. The real key to the Celtics offer is the draft picks - but what if that's not what Minny is looking for?

If Minny wants NBA ready players, contributors to a team looking to the playoffs then Taj/Butler might be more what they are interested in. Add those two with some draft picks and Mirotic and maybe from Minny's perspective that is the better deal.

Hell - maybe Minny has enough of a hard-on for Mirotic that he trumps any prospect Boston could send their way.

Might be we are also more willing to take back a contract (like Kevin Martins).

Taj / Mirotic / #16 / #19 / 2015 #1 for Love / Martin

The only issue I see with trading Mirotic though is that we don't even know if and when WE can actually get him here at this point. What is his real value in a trade with the uncertainty for another team?

[Ben]

I really, really doubt that Minny is looking to get rid of Kevin Martin's contract. He had a very good year and he doesn't have a terrible contract. IMO that's just wishful thinking on our part.

The thing is, if Boston guts its team for Love then this year they're likely to be significantly worse than Minny was last year. In 2015 they could have sufficient capspace to offer a lot of money to Asik, Hibbert, or Marc Gasol, but I don't think that there'll be any star wings available. Will Love really go for one year of sucking and then rebuilding around a core of Rondo, Love, and a big center? In a city which-- though I love it-- isn't that big of a market and doesn't exactly have a tropical climate. Seems pretty iffy to me. Which makes me think that Boston isn't actually offering to gut its team, and that Minny is trying to extract more assets.

[Magilla_Gorilla]

Jeff Green is a significantly overpaid role player. Jared Sullinger is a nice young player who has a history of back issues and is terribly inefficient for a big man. The real key to the Celtics offer is the draft picks - but what if that's not what Minny is looking for?

If Minny wants NBA ready players, contributors to a team looking to the playoffs then Taj/Butler might be more what they are interested in. Add those two with some draft picks and Mirotic and maybe from Minny's perspective that is the better deal.

Hell - maybe Minny has enough of a hard-on for Mirotic that he trumps any prospect Boston could send their way.

Might be we are also more willing to take back a contract (like Kevin Martins).

Taj / Mirotic / #16 / #19 / 2015 #1 for Love / Martin

The only issue I see with trading Mirotic though is that we don't even know if and when WE can actually get him here at this point. What is his real value in a trade with the uncertainty for another team?

I think the only uncertainty about Mirotic is whether or not we will have the cap space to bring him over this year. If we have to use every dollar for Melo - then I expect he stays in Europe. If we're able to swing some sort of S&T and retain our exceptions - then I expect he will come over.