Kevin Love to the Celtics is a great idea — four years ago

Once, a deal to bring on Kevin Love’s offense would have helped the Boston Celtics greatly; now, not so much.

There was a time when the idea of Kevin Love in green and white made sense for the Boston Celtics, but that time has passed.

Once, with a team full of unproven players without a reliable source of offense, a trade for the Cleveland Cavaliers big man would have been wise.

Those days are long gone, however, and the last thing this Celtics team needs is another high-profile name demanding touches while offering nothing on the defensive side of the court.

Boston tried that approach last season with now-Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving, and while the comparison is far from isomorphic, it’s still good.

Neither does much to stop opponents, and while it’s no certainty the UCLA product would go out of his way to try and win games on his own, Love has already shown irritation with his young teammates in Cleveland for not including him enough in the offense.

At the same time, trading out UConn product Kemba Walker for Irving while replacing two more hungry mouths in the form of forward Marcus Morris Sr. and Terry Rozier with a bevy of rookies content to wait for an open shot has given Boston the record this season they expected last.

So, that legendary Celtics big man Kevin McHale would be joined by the likes of Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck in renewing the call for Love’s services is something of a head-scratcher; if anything, the Santa Monica native is exactly the opposite of what Boston needs.

Even looking past Love’s considerable and considerably long contract — which, at age 31 with $120 million guaranteed over four seasons, is no east task — the Celtics are built to grow around the young, dynamic wing duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

While the five-time All-Star may have a championship pedigree the current Celtics do not, adding that chunky contract to Boston’s books would require some difficult cap juggling with Tatum soon extension-eligible and forward Gordon Hayward a possibility for the same.

Matching salary would require sending out at least one of Hayward, Brown, or Marcus Smart and much of Boston’s current crop of rookies. Getting older and likely more expensive isn’t just unwise.

It’s not going to happen.

While there might still be a frontcourt upgrade out there, it’ll almost certainly come from a buyout guy or a player on a small enough deal to avoid shaking up the chemistry behind much of the Celtics success to date this season.

While Boston should be keeping tabs on the availability of players like the New York Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson or the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Nerlens Noel, there’s less of a need than many assumed earlier in the season for the Celtics’ style of play.

The few losses the team has been handed in recent weeks have come because of injury and avoidable error in close games against the league’s better teams, not showing strong evidence of a fundamental roster flaw.

While McHale and Beck certainly know their basketball, they occasionally make bad takes like the rest of us.

And given what we’ve seen from Boston to date, and what we know about their roster, Kevin Love will be an excellent addition.

To some other team, that is.