The Portland Trail Blazers deserve a ton of credit for their recent stretch, overcoming key injuries to win four of their last five games. They've had unexpected role players step up, the most notable of which has been University of Arizona product Caleb Love.
Portland's two-way signing has turned it on as of late, averaging 17.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists over his last six games. But those who followed Love throughout his collegiate career know that streaky scoring is in his nature. The reality of the situation is that the injury-riddled Blazers are overly reliant on an up-and-down rookie guard, and it's only a matter of time before it comes back to bite them.
Blazers can't rely on Caleb Love for consistent production
We must zoom out of Love's hot stretch and look at his rookie campaign as a whole. On the season, he's averaging 9.9 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 38% from the field and 32.1% from beyond the arc. That level of inefficiency is not winning basketball, especially considering his lack of playmaking and defensive limitations as an undersized guard.
It's the same dilemma Portland faced with Dalano Banton last year, which is why they ultimately decided to move on from the high-volume guard. Love isn't necessarily a knockdown shooter, making it much more challenging to have him out there as a complementary piece. He's at his best with the ball in his hands. The issue, however, is that Portland's offense isn't at its best when that's the case, leaving his role in question.
Given how injured their roster has been, the Blazers have had no choice but to throw Love out there and live with the results. Lately, he's been absolutely bailing them out. But once Love's hot shooting stretch comes back down to Earth, the Blazers are going to be left searching for a more sustainable solution.
Like Banton last year, Love has already singlehandedly won Portland a few games this season due to his microwave scoring ability. But from a consistency standpoint, it's in their best interest to move on from this experiment as soon as their roster gets healthy. It's great that Love is stepping up for Portland when they need him the most, but ideally, they wouldn't need him at all.
The Blazers will have to make a difficult decision regarding their two-way contracts this season, particularly with Love and Sidy Cissoko. But given the catch-22 surrounding Love's offensive role, Portland would be better off going with the latter should they decide to clear a spot for either of them on the 15-man roster.