I'm not sure why people jump to the conclusion that a Love deal will leave us with nothing.
Danny wouldn't make a trade like that, he'd rather keep the assets and wait for a good value opportunity. This is Danny Ainge, not James Dolan or Billy King.
Just using this recently finished seasons rosters and salary hits, here's a quickly thrown together example of how the Celtics can put together a very strong team in a very weak Eastern conference. This is obviously not possible because of expired contracts but the same scenario, with even better consequences for teams like Minny and Orlando, is very possible salary cap wise.
Remember the cap will likely go up to at least $63 million next season. That's an extra $5 million. The tax threshold will go up to $77 million.
Use your imagination and take out the guys like Humphries and Bradley, and add the appropriate draft picks that we can send, and Houston can send. Also add Carmelo Anthony going to Houston as a free agent in this scenario...
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=prsoxozRondoAfflalo (Orlando gets a pick from Houston and some short term filler)
Parsons (expiring and redundant because the Rockets get Melo as a free agent, we ask for him because we are taking Asik and Lin off the Rockets hands in order to have the cap room to sign Melo)
Love (for the expected 6th pick+17th and Olynyk or Sully+ Filler+Brooklyn pick.)
Asik (With Lin and Parsons, we send back Bass +2016 Clippers pick or the Philly picks)
We still have our own 2015 pick, with one less Brooklyn pick.
We have Lin off the bench with plenty of money to sign Pierce to the MLE and other solid bench pieces. In a scenario like the above, Asik, Lin and Parsons come off the books in 2015-16 and we'd have another $14 million to decide who we want to keep and/or sign with Bird rights after dumping Lin, or what free agents in the 2015-16 class we want to go after with Rondo (probably staying) and Love already opted in for 2015-16.