Your Morning Dump… Where Flip Saunders isn’t talking with Danny Ainge

Minnesota Timberwolves team president of basketball operations and new head coach Flip Saunders smiles during a media availability in Minneapolis, Friday, June 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

Minnesota Timberwolves team president of basketball operations and new head coach Flip Saunders smiles during a media availability in Minneapolis, Friday, June 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump. 

What the move doesn’t necessarily do is bring the Celtics any closer to Kevin Love. The Timberwolves have still not shown any interest in what the C’s could have to offer, and they have not communicated to Ainge what players they would like that he might be able to get for them.

It is important to note the Celtics and Minnesota have thus far never been close on a deal for Love or even been engaged in any meaningful back-and-forth, offer-counteroffer discussion. It’s a trade the Celts most certainly desire to make, but to do so would take a major change in thinking on the part of the Timberwolves.

Ainge, meanwhile, is just trying to get in on the big action. And he will head from here to the Las Vegas summer league in search of it.

Sources say he believes Boston is a place Love wants to play, but he knows that it will take more than the presence of Rajon Rondo to attract him. So he is continuing to find ways to gather players and picks that could set up larger moves to either get an All-Star or fetch the talent to support him.

Boston Herald

Kinda hard to work a deal when one side refuses to tell you what they want. Sounds like Flip Saunders is still in denial about the situation. Maybe he’s angry about Love’s vacation in Boston and the media firestorm it created.

Regardless, this revelation puts a major dent in my already muted optimism for Love landing in Boston.

I enjoyed Sean Grande’s take on the deal for Thornton and Zeller:

“It is remarkable what you can get for a bucket of water when everybody else is running around with their hair on fire,” said Grande. “The price of the water goes up. Danny had the exception, it was going to expire, if nothing happens by Saturday, that thing is gone.”

Grande says the deal “added to the basket of assets.”

Related links: Globe – Despite trade, rebuilding will take time | ESPN Boston – C’s get A for trade | Roster reset: Post trade glance

On Page 2, good news for Celtics summer leaguer Dairis Bertans.

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Boston Celtics summer league guard Dairis Bertans was hospitalized after a scary collision during Wednesday night’s win against the Detroit Pistons, but a CT scan test was negative and the plan called for him to be released later in the night, according to the team.

No word has been issued yet on whether the 24-year-old will play in the final two summer league games.

MassLive

Tough break for Bertans. Here’s hoping he gets another shot to chase his dream.

The rest of the links:

ESPN Boston – Celtics get aggressive Babb | Yahoo! – No commitment from Lebron after Heat meeting |

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