For a moment it looked like the Boston Celtics are the front runners in the race to try and convince the Minnesota Timberwolves regarding the Kevin Love trade. But as other teams show their stuff, it’s clear that the rebuilding and currently direction-less Celtics aren’t seriously being considered, which might opt them to go in a different direction completely: Trading Rajon Rondo and keep doing their overhaul.

Pictures of Kevin Love with Rajon Rondo at Fenway Park seemed to trick the media into thinking there’s something serious about that potential coming together. However, the Celtics never had anything interesting to give the Timberwolves except some draft picks, and possibly Rondo himself. The Timberwolves want something proven for Love – a player, or more, that can contribute right away. They want teams to pay through their noses to earn the right for Love.

In truth, Flip Saunders, the head coach and general manager, isn’t interested in trading for Love at all. As Wojnarowski explained it, Saunders is going around discussing deals that won’t happen, so he can go back to Love and his agent and say ‘we tried, see you in training camp. Their potential deal with the Golden State Warriors seems to be the kind, although the Timberwolves also want Harrison Barnes included. In short, doing everything to make it seem like he did everything but in the meantime destroying any chance of actually trading Love right now.

And for  the Celtics? They’re stuck with a team that has Rajon Rondo on an expiring deal as their number one player. They have about $6.5 million in cap space to make some additions, but they need to re-sign Avery Bradley. Other than him, it’s hard to find a player the Celtics are really confident about as part of their next team, the one they’ll be trying to put together in the summer of 2015. The current roster, with Rondo and Jeff Green as the leading men, doesn’t seem to be doing anything special, not even in the very weak Eastern conference.

The Celtics want to win now, but probably realize that it’s not possible. Maybe in the back of their minds they know trading Rondo sooner would have put them in a favorable situation a lot quicker. Now, if Love isn’t available for them via trade – either if he goes somewhere else or simply waits a year until becoming a free agent the Celtics can pursue, they’ll be willing to wait another year and figure out what to do next.

There are still some bad contracts on this team, like Gerald Wallace for example, who also makes $10 million in the 2015-2016 season. Hopefully he’ll want to leave via a buyout by then. The Celtics have Rondo and Jeff Green as players you can see someone in this league going after. Brandon Bass at $6.9 million isn’t a worthy catch. The rest? Nothing to talk or write about except for Avery Bradley, which the Celtics aren’t giving up. That’s not enough to land Kevin Love, but also not enough to be successful. In a league which is always about win or bust, the Celtics are in somewhat of a limbo situation, so parting ways with Rondo might be their best chance of setting themselves up for success as soon as possible.

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