The Philadelphia 76ers are rounding out their eventful free agency week with two-way signings, it seems. Fresh off inking Rayan Rupert to a two-way deal, they’ve now signed former Portland Trail Blazer Caleb Love to a two-way contract. ESPN’s Shams Charania was the first to report the news:
For those who aren’t familiar with Love, he’s a former five-star recruit with quite
an extensive college resume. He played five years in the NCAA, three with the North Carolina Tar Heels, later transferring to Arizona and playing two years there. Across 142 total college games, he averaged 15.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He accumulated 200 made three-pointers.
Love declared for the 2025 NBA Draft, and to the surprise of some, went undrafted. He went on to sign a two-way contract with the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite never being converted, Love saw plenty of action at the NBA level during his rookie season. He appeared in 49 games for them, starting one, and averaged 10.4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, shooting 38.8 percent from the field and 31.8 percent from three. Love’s best stretch of basketball occurred from late December through the beginning of February, where he averaged 15.3 points on 43.3 percent shooting. I’d encourage you to check out his game logs, as for a first-year undrafted guy he really lit it up.
Love now caps off the new “guard glut” of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Labaron Philon and Anfernee Simons. There’s no shortage of scoring amongst this group. Love also has quite a few Sixer-centric connections. A year ago, he faced off against Edgecombe in a heated rookie workout, and also crossed over with Dalen Terry during his time at Arizona.
With the signings of Love and Rupert, the Sixers are now down to one vacant two-way spot. Considering Rupert is best classified as a wing, and Love is a guard, it’s safe to assume that could go towards bolstering their big man rotation, currently occupied by Joel Embiid, Adem Bona, Johni Broome, and Jabari Walker.
