I was listening to Locked on Blazers with Mike Richman, who apologized for saying he didn’t think Caleb Love is an NBA player. He added that he doesn’t think Love is an all-rookie performer.

I then looked at NBA.com’s Kia Rookie Ladder, which has love 9th, behind Jeremiah Fears of the Pelicans and ahead of Tre Johnson of the Wizards.

Richman’s my favorite Blazers podcaster, but I think he might be wrong about Love again.

16 comments

  3. He oozes the same brand of confidence and swagger that Dame has. He’s too physically limited to actually be a starting caliber player but I have zero doubt in my mind he’s gonna be a good bench piece for a while.

  4. I’m saying, if he can improve his 3s to about 36-7% over the course of a full season he definitely deserves a spot on some teams, including us.
    That’s a high benchmark but imo that’s his make or break

  5. He’s been really impressive after his cold start, might be a real steal. Honestly reminds me of a young Dame.

  6. One thing that I haven’t seen discussed much is that Love has improved on defense to where he is not a liability. You saw it last night when he got matched with Jalen Johnson on a switch and kept him from getting to the rim as well as using his quickness in the passing lanes for a steal.

    He must also be listening to the defensive specialists like Jrue, Matisse, Rob and Tou. Add that willingness to learn to the chip on his shoulder and this is what you get. Very cool to see even though it will cause the team to make some tough decisions.

  7. The Kia Rookie Ladder guys should have their mouths washed out with soap to think that rookie Love is anywhere in the same conversation with where rookie Lillard was, much less full career Lillard. The boundless confidence is about the only thing the two have in common.

  8. It will be very hard for him to get into the all rookie teams. Gotta take into consideration all of our guys slowly coming back which equals to less opportunity, as well as the fact that most of the good rookies are on tanking teams (if not all of them) and they will be revieving much more play time than caleb looking forward. I really like caleb but us trying to compete for that playoff spot while other rookies are on tanking teams pretty much destroys his chances imo.

  9. I like this, def see the connection to “Lillard” as he is a 3pt shooter and appears to rarely smiles like Dame did early in his career lol, but I’m not going to give him that title quite yet. Still, love what he is bringing to the team and excited about his potential.

  10. What do we see our PG rotation looking like next year? Caleb has thrown a new surprise wrench into this logjam.

    I can’t see him accepting the 3rd spot – I could see him potentially finding a larger backup role somewhere else. Who knows, maybe we get lucky and he’s down?

    I really hope we don’t move on from Scoot either, at least not until we see what he looks like after this recovery.

    As much as I adore Jrue, I just don’t see him back on the roster next year – especially if he still maintains this value and we can get a nice return for him this summer.

    Dame / Scoot / Love would be my dream.

  13. Richman has that perfect air of confidence paired with ineptitude that makes him a natural for the podcasting world.

  14. I wonder how much of it is him working with Dame as a shooting coach. I feel like he is Dame’s kind of player and dude.

  16. (Yang ref coming)

    Caleb only got to play due to injuries and looked rocky for a while. As Austin Rivers recently said, the #1 way you develop is by playing in real games. Caleb played through his struggles now he’s balling.

    DC & RW3 have been healthy & Yang hasn’t been allowed to play through his struggles. He’d be further along in his development if he got playing time.

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