For many of the teams interested in trading for Kevin Love, the high cost of acquiring him means receiving assurances that he will sign a long-term deal with the club.

A source close to Love told Comcast analyst Tim Welsh that the three-time All-star, "wants to play for an organization that's going to be a winning organization; not necessarily I have to go to a championship team now, but a team that's going to be built to move in that direction. Maybe it'll take a couple years. That's OK. But he needs a change from Minnesota."

The Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls have been mentioned as Love's preferred destinations.

"He (Love) is not one of those guys that's saying, "I want to go to Miami. I want to go to L.A.," the hype cities," Welsh said. "Now would he prefer L.A.? His girlfriend lives there. She's an actress. He went to college there (at UCLA). He was born there."

Welsh added, "but he's a professional. He wants to go where there's the best opportunity for him which would be in a winning organization and he respects the history of the Celtics.

"He respects (Celtics president of basketball operations) Danny Ainge," Welsh said. "He's already built it once. If he (Ainge) can sell him, 'here's the plan for the future,' he's open to it."