Well Ainge better change his motto. No one else is coming here and the offseason is looking disappointing so far reading into the reports.
As much as they may seem to make sense on the surface, at the end of the day there is ALWAYS dollar value on any player.
Lets say the Cleveland wanted to trade Love, but only if he could get a return of Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, Isaiah Thomas and Tyler Zeller along with #16, #28, and next year's Brooklyn pick (unprotected).
Would you say yes?
If so then you have a starting lineup of:
Phil Pressey
James Young
Evan Turner
Kevin Love
Brandon Bass (assuming you re-sign him)
Is that team going to win more games than the team we have right now? No.
Hence we lose more from the assets we give away, then we gain by adding Love.
So as much as it may appear to makes sense, on the surface, to trade everything you have for that superstar - doing that essentially turns you in to the Knicks of last season...and Boston want to win now.
I would imagine the right price maybe refers to not wanting to sign and trade to get him here.
I think if love came to Danny and said, I want to sign in Boston, Danny would offer him the max on the spot.
If I understand correctly (from a post in another CV thread) we technically do not have the ability to sign him outright, because right now we are technically over the cap thanks to cap holds. We would have cap holds for all of our free agents (until they are renounced or sign elsewhere) and for all of our Trade Exceptions (until they are used or renounced).
So if all this is true, then it may actually be a LOT easier to trade for Love then it is to simply sign him because the Celtics may not want to renounce all of those Trade Exceptions / Free Agents unless they have a guarantee that Love would sign...and who knows what kind of messy contractual rules there are around all this stuff.