Why Should Boston HELP Cleveland Facilitate A 3-Team Deal???

[danglertx]

Not sure why the Celtics would do this.  Love and Horford are kind of the same player.  I'm not sure how well they'd play together.

I'd stick with trying to lure Hayward here for nothing but cap space.  Then the C's would have an all star caliber player in the front court, the wing, and the guard positions with young players backing them up.

[Erik]

Paul George might be better in a vacuum than Kevin love, but let me point out a few things:

1) Salary. Love is tied up for 3 more seasons for a reasonable price. Paul George will need a new contract next season. Assuming he stays, we're looking at a max contract.
2) Team needs: Love fills a more specific need for this team: rebounding, spot up shooting. We're already going to have 2 of the best drivers in the game (IT and soon Fultz). We need big time shooters and big time rebounders.
3) I'm assuming that this deal would include signing Hayward as a free agent this year and trading the expiring contracts to match Love's deal. Hayward and George play the same position and similar games, and we already have Crowder and Brown. It's just not a good fit.

[Moranis]

The premise of a 3-way deal between BOS-CLE-IND is that the Pacers will not want Love if they are rebuilding, else they would do a straight swap. If true, then they will be looking for young players and maybe a pick. Tossing out the following 3-way (there are others, but this one works in ESPN's trade machine):

CLE -> BOS: Love ($21.2 MM)
IND -> CLE: George ($18.3 MM)
BOS -> IND: Crowder, Jackson, Rozier, Smart, Zeller $22.7MM ($13.9 MM Guaranteed)

I would say BOS has improved much more than CLE.

As to the claim that George is way, way better than Love, that is not supported by the numbers. Love's net rating per 100 possessions is +10 vs +6 for George and Love's career PER is 21.9 vs 18.5 for George. George is the better defensive player and arguably, a better all-around player, but it is hardly a slam duck. OTOH, Love is dramatically better than what we would give up and he fits a huge need in our frontcourt. We would also have about $19 MM left to pursue a second tier FA assuming we renounce KO, leave Yabu overseas, and have a cap of $101MM.

The biggest problem is that I doubt CLE would want us as a third party.

why wouldn't Boston just trade for George in that scenario.  What is the purpose of acquiring the lesser player all while giving your main competition a better player?

[boscel33]

We should not doing anything to help CLE period.  They are the enemy.  If they get desperate then we will get a better deal from them should we choose to deal with them.

My feelings exactly, which is why I don't want to think about trading the 1st overall for Klay.  He's good but he's also 27, Fultz is 19.

[vjcsmoke]

The premise of a 3-way deal between BOS-CLE-IND is that the Pacers will not want Love if they are rebuilding, else they would do a straight swap. If true, then they will be looking for young players and maybe a pick. Tossing out the following 3-way (there are others, but this one works in ESPN's trade machine):

CLE -> BOS: Love ($21.2 MM)
IND -> CLE: George ($18.3 MM)
BOS -> IND: Crowder, Jackson, Rozier, Smart, Zeller $22.7MM ($13.9 MM Guaranteed)

I would say BOS has improved much more than CLE.

As to the claim that George is way, way better than Love, that is not supported by the numbers. Love's net rating per 100 possessions is +10 vs +6 for George and Love's career PER is 21.9 vs 18.5 for George. George is the better defensive player and arguably, a better all-around player, but it is hardly a slam duck. OTOH, Love is dramatically better than what we would give up and he fits a huge need in our frontcourt. We would also have about $19 MM left to pursue a second tier FA assuming we renounce KO, leave Yabu overseas, and have a cap of $101MM.

The biggest problem is that I doubt CLE would want us as a third party.

And I doubt we want to be their third party if it gets them Paul George.

If you believe the Cavs improve more than we do by such a deal, then you're right.

I don't agree. We're giving up scraps to get an all-star. They're making a lateral move.

Crowder, Rozier, Smart, Zeller and the #1 overall pick of the 2017 NBA draft are scraps?  Plus we enable Paul George to move to Cleveland?  That's some real hard crack you are smoking!

And no I don't do that trade for Kevin Love.  His healthy reliable days are behind him.  Cleveland would be a nightmare matchup with the 4-some of Lebron, Irving, George, and Thompson.  It would be GS East.  DUMB, DUMB move for the Celtics!

[Celtics4ever]

I know people have a man crush on Love, this has clearly clouded people's logical thought processes.   I do not see it happening folks, if CLE gets weaker we are in the finals, why would we do that?    We have the best of both worlds.   Young assets and contention, albeit a level below the top dogs.

[Darío SpanishFan]

Because there is a good possibility of LeBron going West in 2018. Let them beat us one more year if this is the risk for improving our team and having a ten-year project of contention.

That said, I'm not trading our nº1 pick for Love, just explaining the opening question.