I have an honest question. Why does it seem everyone wants Kevin Love?

[Monkhouse]

Ummm...

Love> every player on the Celtics.

I still want Love, and I'm still a huge avid fan of him. Has anyone ever watched Cavs games?

Love just sits on the perimeter like for 30 minutes, then Blatt realizes, "oh he needs to be in the post more!"

Love is effective on the post where he does a good job hustling, and boxing out for rebounds. He can finish inside, and hes a great catch and shoot. Hes just not someone you expect to make and take 6 threes, but he can make them, and he will take them.

Love is an Allstar, no matter what you guys say. Forget PER, Love next to a good defensive Center, can be a 21/10/3 type of guy... That screams Allstar to me, especially in the weak East where the best PF is either Monroe, or Millsap.

[2short]

I wanted…Love for great rebounding and outlet passes.  This was when our team had poor rebounding and rondo to run a fast break.  Love is a very good offensive pf and a great rebounder.  Take all our power forwards and blend their strengths into one player.  Love is better than that player, only difference is Bass' defense.  Do we need him on our current roster and with danny's vision for future team is the more important question.  Also for the $$ who else can we get?
Thibs leaves chicago I'd really go hard at Noah

[Celtics4ever]

I still want Love, and I'm still a huge avid fan of him. Has anyone ever watched Cavs games?

I have, and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Poor defender who requires other to compensate for him a great deal.   Want to bet he wilts some under the playoffs?  I live in Ohio and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Blatt often benches him late in games and Love is not always in there when the game is finished.   I call BS, Monkhouse.

Sometimes, I think main reason guys are goo goo over Love is he is white.  I much rather have Aldridge than Love.   8 more PPG, more blocks and more rebounds.  He has also shown he can will his way to win in the playoff in a series.   Love has shown the ability to will some stats on a bad team.

http://stats.nba.com/vs/#!/?PlayerID=201567&VsPlayerID=200746&range=2008&range=2014

Love would be ok as a final piece, but is you use him as foundation to build on, then you have to have that defensive center to compensate for his weakness on D.  So in a sense, he locks down two slots.

I am going to be laughing when he goes to LA, because at the end of day it will hurt LA.

[Moranis]

Does anyone actually believe we could have won a championship with love and rondo? hell even throw carmelo in and they dont chip imo

You could certainly make it to the ECF with that team.

Love and Carmelo are two players who are/were desperate for legitimate teammates. When they have good teammates, they tend to contribute to the team's success.

Couldn't be further from the truth. Love has the best teammates in the league and is stinking up the joint.

Melo has had Iverson, Amare, and plenty of other all stars and has failed to deliver.

Love's "stinking up the joint" stats on arguably the EC favorite would have been tops on our team in terms of scoring and rebounding.

Love is by no means "stinking up the joint" but when you demand a trade to a specific team and refuse to resign like Love did and then eventually cost Andrew Wiggins and then some then you raise the expectations a whole lot. Bottom line is that Love has the potential to be a 26 and 13 guy. Hes done it before and same cannot be said for many guys in their prime who may be attainable by the celtics which is why people are intrigued.

And Lebron James has the potential to be a 40/8/8 guy.  There is the this thing called team basketball.  You know when you sacrifice your individual stats for the good of the team.

[Moranis]

I still want Love, and I'm still a huge avid fan of him. Has anyone ever watched Cavs games?

I have, and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Poor defender who requires other to compensate for him a great deal.   Want to bet he wilts some under the playoffs?  I live in Ohio and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Blatt often benches him late in games and Love is not always in there when the game is finished.   I call BS, Monkhouse.

Sometimes, I think main reason guys are goo goo over Love is he is white.  I much rather have Aldridge than Love.   8 more PPG, more blocks and more rebounds.  He has also shown he can will his way to win in the playoff in a series.   Love has shown the ability to will some stats on a bad team.

http://stats.nba.com/vs/#!/?PlayerID=201567&VsPlayerID=200746&range=2008&range=2014

Love would be ok as a final piece, but is you use him as foundation to build on, then you have to have that defensive center to compensate for his weakness on D.  So in a sense, he locks down two slots.

I am going to be laughing when he goes to LA, because at the end of day it will hurt LA.

I live in Cleveland and watch the Cavs a lot.  Love has a back injury.  It is one of those that you can play through so he does, but he is clearly injured.  In the games when he comes back from taking some time off, he moves a lot better and is much more a part of the offense.  He sits in the 4th quarter a lot because his back is bothering him especially after getting big minutes early in games or in games where he gets hit.  It is also why he doesn't go into the post as much as he probably should. 

[Roy H.]

There are a lot of positives with Kevin Love.  He's an excellent passer, rebounder, and shooter.  He can play offense on the perimeter or from the post. 

There are downsides, too.  His defense is weak, and at least anecdotally, he looks like a guy who prefers to "get his" rather than blending in to a winning team.  He's got a history of being standoffish with teammates, and he's got some injury issues that are worth monitoring. 

Ideally, Kevin Love is your second or third best player, kind of like on the Cavs.  Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to accept that role willingly. 

Ultimately, I'm undecided whether I'd sign him to a max contract.  For talent alone, you probably have to.  However, I don't think he's the type of player who will ever carry his team to a championship as a #1 option.

[Monkhouse]

I still want Love, and I'm still a huge avid fan of him. Has anyone ever watched Cavs games?

I have, and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Poor defender who requires other to compensate for him a great deal.   Want to bet he wilts some under the playoffs?  I live in Ohio and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Blatt often benches him late in games and Love is not always in there when the game is finished.   I call BS, Monkhouse.

Sometimes, I think main reason guys are goo goo over Love is he is white.  I much rather have Aldridge than Love.   8 more PPG, more blocks and more rebounds.  He has also shown he can will his way to win in the playoff in a series.   Love has shown the ability to will some stats on a bad team.

http://stats.nba.com/vs/#!/?PlayerID=201567&VsPlayerID=200746&range=2008&range=2014

Love would be ok as a final piece, but is you use him as foundation to build on, then you have to have that defensive center to compensate for his weakness on D.  So in a sense, he locks down two slots.

I am going to be laughing when he goes to LA, because at the end of day it will hurt LA.

Whoa, don't bring race into this. Nothing about Love's skin color was the reason why I wanted Love.

Love at worst can score 16/10 as a 3rd scoring option. His defense is bad, but Love would be a perfect fit for the system for Brad Stevens. A great passing big man that can rebound, and run on the fast break to fit the pace/space Stevens is trying to run.

I mean the worst thing you need in order to compete with Love is a defensive anchor. With Rondo, we needed a shooter, scorer, and a great defensive big man lol.

[D.o.s.]

I still want Love, and I'm still a huge avid fan of him. Has anyone ever watched Cavs games?

I have, and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Poor defender who requires other to compensate for him a great deal.   Want to bet he wilts some under the playoffs?  I live in Ohio and I would not touch him with a ten foot pole.   Blatt often benches him late in games and Love is not always in there when the game is finished.   I call BS, Monkhouse.

Sometimes, I think main reason guys are goo goo over Love is he is white.  I much rather have Aldridge than Love.   8 more PPG, more blocks and more rebounds.  He has also shown he can will his way to win in the playoff in a series.   Love has shown the ability to will some stats on a bad team.

http://stats.nba.com/vs/#!/?PlayerID=201567&VsPlayerID=200746&range=2008&range=2014

Love would be ok as a final piece, but is you use him as foundation to build on, then you have to have that defensive center to compensate for his weakness on D.  So in a sense, he locks down two slots.

I am going to be laughing when he goes to LA, because at the end of day it will hurt LA.

Whoa, don't bring race into this. Nothing about Love's skin color was the reason why I wanted Love.

It is, however, the not-so-veiled reasoning behind some of the not-so-oblique comments that popped up in the media last summer, the " obviously Love would be huge in Boston" and the like.

[ThePoeticWolf]

Why do I want Kevin Love to join the C's
1. He is an upgrade at the pf position
2. His ability to space the floor fits the way the Celtics want to play offensively
3. people are making the mistake of thinking about how would Love would fit around the current players, but none of our current players are good enough for the C's to try and build around. Love is the type of foundational player you build around and attract other free agents with.

He doesn't attract other free agents, if that was the case when he was putting up huge numbers, players would have flown to the T-Wolves.  Yes, he's an upgrade over Sully, but wouldn't you rather a true center and a true small forward instead of one upgrade.  Since Sully averages close to 15 a game, and close to 9 rebounds a game.  Love only put up crazy scoring numbers cause he had to be the do all.  Any power forward putting up 15 and 9 and great in the NBA.

[ThePoeticWolf]

We have a power forward that spaces the floor, and isn't that good at defense. There seems to be a big group of people on here that want to keep Kelly around. Kevin Love is 5 times as good as Kelly. So why all the hate for Kevin Love?

The Celtics aren't in position to be picky with signing big time free agents. If Kevin Love would sign here the Celtics need to act.

Based STRICTLY on PER (which I don't like) Kevin Love is the 13th best PF in the NBA this year.

1   Anthony Davis
2   Pau Gasol
3   LaMarcus Aldridge
4   Blake Griffin
5   Derrick Favors
6   Tim Duncan
7   Greg Monroe
8   Brandan Wright
9   Ed Davis
10   Paul Millsap
11   Zach Randolph
12   Dirk Nowitzki
13    Kevin Love

If you do these ratings based on overall players he obviously moves ahead of Wright and Davis. At this point in his career I think he's better than Dirk. You could make an argument for 1 or 2 more.

So the point, and my honest question, why does everyone NOT want to sign a top 10 PF in the NBA?

Source:http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/position/pf

It's not the fact of not wanting to sign a top PF.  It's signing what can do us the most.  If you keep Sully who is a top 15 to 20 PF when healthy (yes he needs to drop weight), since he's not a true center.  Would you rather one piece that can help like a Kevin Love, or two pieces in positions we truly need help at? 

[ThePoeticWolf]

Not all guys appreciate defense and mental toughness and are wowed by his rebounds and points.   I think it would be pure folly to build around him.

I'm gonna agree here, the only thing this present Celtic team shows right now is mental toughness and defense. With only mediocre results. Unfortunately it's the two very things Love isn't.

I'm not saying he's not a solid offensive talent, or a good rebounder, or a good teammate. i suspect that he is a soft uncaring defensive player. In my book the power forward should be the teams second line of defense while protecting the rim and stopping the opposing teams invasion into the paint. I like defensive minded centers and power forwards that can move and run. They're invaluable. Players off the bench or wings can be instant offensive types, that's fine.

it's just a personal feeling.

We have two people who actually understand basketball and not just look at a name and big numbers in scoring and rebounds.  Since a true center would give us decent scoring and more rebounds and actually defends the rim.  A true small forward does the scoring, rebounds, an plays DEFENSE.  Thank you to the both of you who actually get basketball.

[D.o.s.]

 

[Donoghus]

It's not the fact of not wanting to sign a top PF.  It's signing what can do us the most.  If you keep Sully who is a top 15 to 20 PF when healthy (yes he needs to drop weight), since he's not a true center.  Would you rather one piece that can help like a Kevin Love, or two pieces in positions we truly need help at?

Basically, this has been somewhat along the lines of my stance on Love last summer & of now.  I'm not sold on bringing in Love as a number one guy and tying up a substantial amount of cap room at a position that the Celtics are already decent at.  I'd much rather try & upgrade the small forward position or center position.  If that means riding with K.O. & Sully for the time being, so be it.  I can live with that if the Celtics can bring themselves in a legit wing. 

I simply think the wing position is of greater addressing & need going forward.    You bring in Love and you're still going to have to address the 3 & 5 with a lot less cap room.  I can live with what the Celtics have at the PF position for now if they can upgrade at other spots.

[ThePoeticWolf]

It's not the fact of not wanting to sign a top PF.  It's signing what can do us the most.  If you keep Sully who is a top 15 to 20 PF when healthy (yes he needs to drop weight), since he's not a true center.  Would you rather one piece that can help like a Kevin Love, or two pieces in positions we truly need help at?

Basically, this has been somewhat along the lines of my stance on Love last summer & of now.  I'm not sold on bringing in Love as a number one guy and tying up a substantial amount of cap room at a position that the Celtics are already decent at.  I'd much rather try & upgrade the small forward position or center position.  If that means riding with K.O. & Sully for the time being, so be it.  I can live with that if the Celtics can bring themselves in a legit wing. 

I simply think the wing position is of greater addressing & need going forward.    You bring in Love and you're still going to have to address the 3 & 5 with a lot less cap room.  I can live with what the Celtics have at the PF position for now if they can upgrade at other spots.

Thank You for understanding basketball.  Everyone is looking at Sully and K.O. as some hack of a basketball player.  Sully was a 15 and 9 guy, which is great for a power forward.  Yes he's not putting up Love careers season of 22 and 12.  But give me a true center like a DeAndre Jordan and a true small forward like Leonard.  Adding these two make more sense then Love as a team prospective.  I'm not hating on Love, I just think he's not what the Celtics need, since we need other positions more.  Adding the two I said our starting line up would be great. 

Option A

Center - Jordan
Power Forward - Sully
Small Forward - Leonard
Shooting Guard - Bradley
Point Guard - Smart

Bench would have Thomas, Turner, K.O., Zeller, Resign Crowder and Bass, Pressey, Plus two first rounder. 

Say we sign Love.  Option B/C

Center - Sully or Zeller
Power Forward - Love
Small Forward - Leonard
Shooting Guard - Bradley
Point Guard - Smart

or

Center - Jordan
Power Forward - Love
Small Forward - Turner
Shooting Guard - Bradley
Point Guard - Smart

Bench would have Thomas, Turner, K.O., Zeller , Resign Crowder and Bass, Pressey, Plus two first rounder. 

If you look at this any basketball fan should be able to see from a true basketball prospective not just seeing the name Love, Option A is better then Option B or C

[Lucky17]

It's not the fact of not wanting to sign a top PF.  It's signing what can do us the most.  If you keep Sully who is a top 15 to 20 PF when healthy (yes he needs to drop weight), since he's not a true center.  Would you rather one piece that can help like a Kevin Love, or two pieces in positions we truly need help at?

Basically, this has been somewhat along the lines of my stance on Love last summer & of now.  I'm not sold on bringing in Love as a number one guy and tying up a substantial amount of cap room at a position that the Celtics are already decent at.  I'd much rather try & upgrade the small forward position or center position.  If that means riding with K.O. & Sully for the time being, so be it.  I can live with that if the Celtics can bring themselves in a legit wing. 

I simply think the wing position is of greater addressing & need going forward.    You bring in Love and you're still going to have to address the 3 & 5 with a lot less cap room.  I can live with what the Celtics have at the PF position for now if they can upgrade at other spots.

Crowder seems like a fine low-usage defender at the 3, and should be easily retained as a RFA if Ainge is willing to bring him back.

Kawhi Leonard is a near impossibility. I don't see how Spurs brass doesn't match any offer out there for him. Ditto for DeAndre Jordan. The Clippers have one of the wealthiest owners in the NBA; I doubt Ballmer blinks about bringing Jordan back on a max deal.

As for the rest of the roster, Ainge will still have assets to use if Love is coming as a free agent. I don't think Ainge has to empty the cupboard to get him.