But what if Celtics general manager Danny Ainge has enough ammunition to make a move now that will have the team in contention much sooner?
Hear me out.
There are whispers going around the NBA that Kevin Love wants out of Minnesota and if you're the Timberwolves, why not deal Love now before he can depart as a free agent 18 months from now?
Ainge could send Minnesota Jared Sullinger, who has established himself as a double-digit scorer and rebounder in his second season, as the center piece of the deal. Brandon Bass, whose contract expires after next season, and Avery Bradley, a competent young guard whose contract expires this year, would also be included as would Kris Humphries and Keith Bogans for salary purposes. Humphries deal expires after this season and Bogans could be bought out of his contract with the Celtics sending money in the deal to help that cause.
The Celtics would also add at least two 1st round draft picks to make this deal happen.
In return the Celtics would get Love, one of the best power forwards in the game. Ainge would also have to take back Kevin Martin and JJ Barea to give Minnesota some salary cap relief.
All of a sudden the Celtics would be a contender in the East. A starting five of Rondo, Martin, Jeff Green, Love, and Kelly Olynyk with a bench rotation of Barea, Jeryd Bayless, Gerald Wallace, and Joel Anthony is not enough to get by Miami or Indiana in the East this season but it would make them better immediately and would provide a very good foundation for the future with just a few tweaks (particularly depth at forward and center) needed to have them back competing for a championship.
And yes, this trade does work on ESPN's trade machine. Here is the link: http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=llhhlvc
It is definitely a reach but Minnesota isn't going anywhere and once again needs to hit the reset button and Ainge has made enough moves over the last few months to give the Timberwolves the assets they will be looking for in exchange for Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment