Boston Celtics Rumors: 3 wild-card trade targets the C’s could pursue

Kevin Love

We continue on the path of veteran players with championship experience with Cleveland Cavaliers big man Kevin Love. Love, a 5x All-Star and a 2x All-NBA honoree, has spent the past season and a half dwindling away on the lowly LeBron-less Cavs.

Looking towards their second consecutive top-10 lottery selection Cleveland has obviously hit the reset button after four consecutive years reaching the NBA Finals. It appears the franchise is going for somewhat of a youth movement and yet, for some reason, Love still finds himself amongst these early 20-somethings.

The Boston Celtics could certainly change that if they wanted. And, truth be told, they should entertain the idea.

Despite what many may think, Love is having himself yet another impressive season, averaging 17.8 points and 9.8 boards on 46% shooting from the field and 38% shooting from deep. Now, sure, some could make the argument that these numbers carry little weight, as he is putting them up on one of the worst team’s in the NBA.

However, that could easily be countered with the fact that he has boasted stats such as this on winning and, even, championship teams as recently as two seasons ago, with higher efficiency ratings to go along with it.

And, again, one could — and probably would — argue: well, he had LeBron James taking the defense’s attention off of him, so it was a lot easier for him to score more efficiently.

To that, I say, correct. He did have someone insanely talented to draw attention away from him which, in turn, did benefit his efficiency and productivity. However, what do the Boston Celtics have?

LeBron? No, but a bevy of talents that requires eyes on them. The C’s have 4 insanely talented players who can pack a huge punch in Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward. With them, Love would find far more opportunities to find clean looks at the basket and, thus, would only help their team’s overall offensive production.

He would also help space the floor (37 percent career long range shooter) in Boston which would help improve their long range game — rank 15th in 3-point percentage — as well as open up driving lanes for Walker, Tatum, Brown and Hayward.

Does he add much defensively? Not exactly. But with the fact that Daniel Theis has played quite well on that side of the ball this season and that defensive stalwart Robert Williams is expected back soon, it wouldn’t be that big of a problem.

At the ripe age of 31, Kevin Love has shown that he can still rebound, pass and, most importantly, score at a very high rate. With his trade value only plummeting, I’d consider dealing for the veteran big if I could get him for a reasonable price before this year’s deadline.