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Let's get creative, what are some other options besides Love or Melo?

What are your best plan B's (or C's or whatever)?

Ronald Martinez

Danny Ainge patiently explained what several of you pointed out in the comments over the past few days.  This isn't an either/or thing.  It isn't "we didn't get Love, so time to trade Rondo."  At least not yet.

Danny Ainge: Celtics looking for more than Kevin Love | Boston Herald

"We have more than two different scenarios and two different teams," said the father. "I mean, there’s five different scenarios at least — and by draft day there may be more like seven or eight scenarios. I know what you mean, but what I’m saying is it’s more than that, and it’s always more than that. It’s not that simple or just two scenarios. There’s the rebuild and stay young, there’s (the) try-to-win-now scenario, and there is in between." And those situations could multiply after the draft. Whether or not the Celtics are successful in their pursuit of Love, they definitely will try to position themselves for a run at the major players who might opt out and become free agents.

So if we don't hit a home run and get Kevin Love or Carmelo Anthony (or both) then what other options do we have that we can explore before we think about selling Rondo on the open market?

Obviously there's the path of least resistance which is to simply use our picks and see what develops next year.  The Celtics have even gone so far as to call that the most likely course (at least on draft night).  Kevin walked us through several scenarios where we could trade up or down in the draft itself.

That said, I think they'd very much prefer to make some kind of move this summer to upgrade the roster with more than just rookies.

Bulpett mentioned free agents.  There's restricted free agents out there like Greg Monroe and Gordon Hayward.  The Celtics would have to do a lot of digging to free up enough cap space to make a run at either one, but they might convince the players and teams to think about sign-and-trade options.  We've certainly got the future picks to tempt teams if they fear they'll lose the players anyway. (I'd keep an eye on the Utah situation personally)

Another option is to play the role of facilitator in deals.  If Houston wants to dump Asik and Lin, we can pick them up if the price is right.  If Chicago wants to dump Taj Gibson or other contracts, we can talk about that too.  If teams want to give us quality players so they can make runs at superstars in free agency, that's not a bad option.

Also, every year someone gets traded completely out of left field.  The deal that ends up happening might just be one that nobody is talking about or expecting.

So get creative.  What are some options out there that you'd want to explore (that are within reason) besides getting Love or trading Rondo?

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