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The Portland Trail Blazers have officially suffered their second major loss of the NBA offseason.
First, interim head coach Tiago Splitter opted to depart Rip City to lead the Chicago Bulls. Now, undrafted guard and Arizona product Caleb Love has ended his tenure in Portland by signing a new two-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Love, 24, wasn't selected in the 2025 NBA Draft after a standout collegiate career before signing a two-way deal with the Blazers.
He'd split time between the active roster and the Rip City Remix — but still managed 49 appearances in the regular season with Portland.
For an undrafted free agent, the risk the Blazers' brass took on Love garnered great results, as the combo guard averaged 10.4 points, 2.5 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game in his rookie campaign.
While it is certainly difficult to watch a young player that Portland developed in-house move elsewhere ... the split makes sense.
Heading into the summer, Portland's backcourt was crowded as is.
Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe appeared to be the future; Jrue Holiday was vital to the franchise's surge to the playoffs while Damian Lillard continued rehabbing from his torn Achilles.
... and then the Blazers swung a trade for Ja Morant, trading two forwards — Jerami Grant and Khris Murray — to acquire the two-time All-Star.
Portland believes Morant and Lillard will be able to coexist as the starting backcourt, which relegates Henderson, Sharpe and Holiday to the bench.
For these reasons, Love simply just didn't have a roster spot.
That's not a knock on him as a player at all — in fact, the success he experienced as a Blazer is likely what landed him the opportunity in Philadelphia.
Now, his chances of seeing the floor there are probably just as thin as they'd have been in Portland, given that the Sixers now boast a quartet of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecomb, Anfernee Simons and Jaylen Brown.
And that's not even considering the possibility of LeBron James heading to the City of Brotherly Love, which would theoretically bury Love even further down the depth chart.
Still, for the value, Love is a steal. He's already proven he belongs at the NBA level, and at just 24 years old, there's still plenty of room for his game to grow.
Unfortunately for him and Portland, there were only so many minutes to go around.
New head coach Micah Nori is already being asked to make sense of the Blazers' current backcourt logjam, and keeping Love in the mix would've only complicated things further.
Continue reading...
First, interim head coach Tiago Splitter opted to depart Rip City to lead the Chicago Bulls. Now, undrafted guard and Arizona product Caleb Love has ended his tenure in Portland by signing a new two-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Love, 24, wasn't selected in the 2025 NBA Draft after a standout collegiate career before signing a two-way deal with the Blazers.
He'd split time between the active roster and the Rip City Remix — but still managed 49 appearances in the regular season with Portland.
For an undrafted free agent, the risk the Blazers' brass took on Love garnered great results, as the combo guard averaged 10.4 points, 2.5 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game in his rookie campaign.
While it is certainly difficult to watch a young player that Portland developed in-house move elsewhere ... the split makes sense.
Heading into the summer, Portland's backcourt was crowded as is.
Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe appeared to be the future; Jrue Holiday was vital to the franchise's surge to the playoffs while Damian Lillard continued rehabbing from his torn Achilles.
... and then the Blazers swung a trade for Ja Morant, trading two forwards — Jerami Grant and Khris Murray — to acquire the two-time All-Star.
Portland believes Morant and Lillard will be able to coexist as the starting backcourt, which relegates Henderson, Sharpe and Holiday to the bench.
For these reasons, Love simply just didn't have a roster spot.
That's not a knock on him as a player at all — in fact, the success he experienced as a Blazer is likely what landed him the opportunity in Philadelphia.
Now, his chances of seeing the floor there are probably just as thin as they'd have been in Portland, given that the Sixers now boast a quartet of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecomb, Anfernee Simons and Jaylen Brown.
And that's not even considering the possibility of LeBron James heading to the City of Brotherly Love, which would theoretically bury Love even further down the depth chart.
Still, for the value, Love is a steal. He's already proven he belongs at the NBA level, and at just 24 years old, there's still plenty of room for his game to grow.
Unfortunately for him and Portland, there were only so many minutes to go around.
New head coach Micah Nori is already being asked to make sense of the Blazers' current backcourt logjam, and keeping Love in the mix would've only complicated things further.
Continue reading...
