Let's assume we do get Love

[LooseCannon]

If we can land Love, Afflalo has to be the next move.

I'm going to say that acquiring a defensive-minded center is the obvious next move and Ainge would be satisfied with bringing back Bradley.

[CoachBo]

If we can land Love, Afflalo has to be the next move.

I'm going to say that acquiring a defensive-minded center is the obvious next move and Ainge would be satisfied with bringing back Bradley.

I agree, and I suspect Ainge will chase Asik first.

[jay]

Bradley, Rondo, and Asik on the floor at the same time?  Green as your second scoring option?

Asik could be the 2nd player to get, but Afflalo should be the 3rd.  Bradley should come off the bench.  Afflalo should be easy to get if they draft Exum

[SHAQATTACK]

Much as I want Love on the team.

I don't think the Celtics have the fire power to go with him.

Green is too unreliable , AB hurt all the time.

Rondo can't score enough

The Celtics need a lights out shooter to put on the floor with Love , or I'm afraid he'll be in the same situation he was in with Minn,

Thus want out.....quickly with C's too

[hondobird33]

Here is some firepower and fits within salary cap with Rondo as the facilitator:
Love: 26 pts/gm
Martin: 19 pts/gm
Green: 17 pts/gm
Gortat: 13 pts/gm
Rondo: 12 pts/gm & 10 assists
 

[celticbos]

That starting five would give up more points than they can score!!!

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Need wing shooting/scoring to open the floor, of course.  Green has the corner 3 and the drive from his OKC days (the go-stand-in-the-corner offense).

Could we be strong enough to lure Pierce back?  Clippers will be calling for sure, probably Doc's first call this offseason.  Would surely fill a hole around much younger players.  Best stabilizing the bench, but could well start.  Then we're starting to talk about taking a shot at the chip.

Rondo/Bayless......../Pressey
Martin/Bradley......../Johnson
Green/Pierce.........../Wallace
Love/Olynyk
Asik..................../Anthony/Vitor/Iverson

As good a shot at making the ECF as anyone outside of Miami.

[CM0]

What is the best team that we can build around him?

I'm guessing we'd trade away Sullinger, picks 6 and 17, and a future Brooklyn pick as assets and Bass, Joel Anthony, and Bogans to make the trade work.

Then we could trade the TE and next year's Clippers pick for Asik.  Next re-sign Bradley and Bayless.
This will give us a roster of

1.  Rondo, Bayless, Pressey
2.  Bradley, Bayless
3.  Green, Wallace
4.  Love, Olynyk
5.  Asik, Olynyk, Faverani

I think that's probably a third or fourth seed in the East. 

Is there any way to build a stronger team than what I have suggested?

Is this team strong enough to convince Love to stay and sign an extension?

I can't imagine that Danny would stop there. We need at least one more piece, a number 2 option behind Love, and ahead of either Bradley or Green.

Also, I don't really see Love being traded for 3 first round picks and Sullinger. I think it is believed that by next year Sully will be around a 20/10 guy, with better defense than Love. Especially if he gets in shape this offseason, and plays his natural position of PF. So any trade with Sully would probably include our lottery pick this year and a future first.

I imagine that Danny would want to keep our Nets pick this year, maybe even move up a few spots with it to get a solid guy who can immediately play and contribute.

I don't know where Celtic blog users keep thinking Sully will ever be better than Love.

20/10 is Allstar numbers... I don't think Sully can pull off being an Allstar next year, I just don't see it...

Sully is 6.8'5 without shoes, and is a doughy PF that uses his bulk/weight to try to push himself into the paint. Sully is a smart defender, but by no means is he anywhere near the level of Kevin Love.

Like I've stated numerous times, Love is a underrated defender. Hes not a sieve anymore, and even though Sullinger put up good defensive numbers, I want to see him more and more later on before I reserve further judgement.

The issues with height are largely over rated. you may as well drop everyones height in the NBA by about two inches then, in which case Kevin Love is like a half inch taller than Sullinger, if that. The issue with Love as a defender is that he puts considerably less effort in defense. Sullinger actually tries, and when he is not playing center has shown to be an average defender in only his second year. He fouls a lot, but his fouls per 36 has gone down considerably from his first year to his second.

As to my comment about him becoming close to a 20/10 guy next year being scrutinized; Love is a 26/13 guy right now, so offensively next year Sully won't be at his level in all probability. But at the rate of his improvement from his first to second year, along with playing at his better position of PF, and significantly improving his conditioning and all around strength, there is no reason to think that he won't score more and rebound more next year. Additionally, if he is able to work on a decent 3 point shot that isn't just an in-season experiment, he would be adding greater versatility with his range to his game.

If these improvements are made this year, than it is likely that a trade for Love would not even need to be made because Sully would be able to fulfill some 80 of what Love does offensively anyhow, and with better defense. And 20/10 numbers are All Star numbers, but plenty of guys get those number but don't get voted to those teams.  Otherwise Zach Randolf would be an all star every year. So, yes, I think that Sully is that good.

At 22 years old, Love's PPG and RPG were only slightly better than Sully's at 22 (last year). Sully also A) was coming off an injury-plagued rookie campaign that slowed his development and B) is a better overall defender at 22 than Love is at 25. I'm not saying that Sully will ever be as good as Love is now but he's likely to be in the general ballpark. He's also MUCH cheaper than Love and keeping him means we don't have to part with expiring contracts that will free up even more cap space next year. It goes without saying that keeping Sully means we can also keep this year's picks which are relatively vital for us in attempting to fill multiple long-term needs.

I don't see the point of a Love trade at all. It's nothing more than a desperate and insane bribe to the wolves for essentially allowing us to sign a free agent at our current position of greatest strength on a young team with multiple needs that doesn't yet have an identity and won't be a real contender with Love anyhow (unless we sell EVERYTHING for pennies on the dollar just to get guys that make up for Love's known deficiencies). The idea is horrifically stupid on every level: value, timing, long-term flexibility. It's the product of boredom and frustration.

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I don't see the point of a Love trade at all. It's nothing more than a desperate and insane bribe to the wolves for essentially allowing us to sign a free agent at our current position of greatest strength on a young team with multiple needs that doesn't yet have an identity and won't be a real contender with Love anyhow (unless we sell EVERYTHING for pennies on the dollar just to get guys that make up for Love's known deficiencies). The idea is horrifically stupid on every level: value, timing, long-term flexibility. It's the product of boredom and frustration.

Love trade alone probably doesn't make sense.

Love trade as part of a "fireworks" package that brings us to ECF/contention as early as next season is a whole other thing altogether.

And that's pretty much what folks seem to be thinking, from what I'm reading around here.

Love/Asik is the beginning of a contending front line, IMO.

Rondo/Bradley have tons of chemistry and great D, and are a proven contending backcourt.

Pierce and Deng are both free agent SF's that will be looking for a solid franchise and an important role (curiously, could we sign Pierce with the TPE from his own trade?  Masterful, Danny!).

We still have Bird rights on Humphries, who would be worth resigning if we contend, right?  Will pay for contender?  (and could that mean Jeremy Lin over Bayless as backup combo guard?)

We probably won't have to trade out both Sully AND Olynyk, keeping one young stud in the stable.

Quite a bit of quality parts around the bin, and Love could be a guy that can bring the rest together pretty quickly.

Rondo/Lin/Pressey
Bradley/Lin/Bayless?
Pierce/Deng/Green (could actually happen, right?)
Love/Olynyk
Asik/Humphries

And no doubt we would see Rondo/Green/Pierce/Deng/Love out there at some point...

And that, folks, would be fireworks.

[LooseCannon]

Bradley, Rondo, and Asik on the floor at the same time?  Green as your second scoring option?

My main concern about the offense of a Asik/Love/Green/Bradley/Rondo unit would be that Green isn't as good of a three-point shooter as Bradley and Love.