Caleb Love Compared to Former NBA Sixth Man of the Year Amid Rookie Breakout

Portland Trail Blazers rookie guard Caleb Love has emerged in Rip City this season after spending five years in College Basketball on the North Carolina Tar Heels and Arizona Wildcats. Once seen as a potential top pick, Love ended up going undrafted.

Love is averaging 16.8 points per game on a 45.5/40.7/74.4 shooting split, bouncing back between the Rip City Remix and the Blazers at first, but solidifying his role on the pro team in December and January. He's been indispensable in Portland's rise to becoming a playoff team if the postseason started today.

The Ringer's Danny Chau believes Love is one of 15 NBA rookies to watch during the 2025-26 season. Chau also believes Love is comparable to Philadelphia 76ers guard Eric Gordon, who's been in the league since 2009.

"It’s hard to make sense of who Love really is. He is a two-way player for the Portland Trail Blazers, an undrafted 24-year-old free agent who wasn’t even invited to the 2025 draft combine. He had a career 38 percent field goal percentage over the course of five college seasons at North Carolina and Arizona. He shot 35 percent in five NBA summer league games. He shot 33 percent from the field in his first 21 regular-season games. Simply put, there is a large sample of Love being an eager but woefully inefficient shooter," Chau wrote.

"But then what are we to make of the 14-game stretch in which Love looked like Damian Lillard reincarnate, stepping up for a Blazers squad decimated by backcourt injuries? For about a month from late December to mid-January, Love went on one of the most impressive and improbable hot streaks of any player this season, averaging 16.8 points per game almost exclusively off the bench and shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 40.7 percent from 3 (on 8.4 attempts!).

"Assuming Love averages out somewhere between the two poles of this season’s performance, he’ll still be a useful rotation player. He is a dead ringer basketball-wise for Eric Gordon: They’re almost identical in their burly builds, right down to the massive wingspan relative to their 6-foot-3 frames. Gordon was far more explosive at his athletic peak, but Love has the more natural comportment as a shooter, both off movement and off the dribble. The bulk of Gordon’s 19-year career has been built on his reliability as a high-volume shooter who can serve as a secondary or tertiary creator in a pinch while holding his ground on defense. Love has already shattered expectations for his NBA career; even if this blistering run peters out, he has a perfect blueprint for longevity."

Caleb Love Giving Blazers Reasons to Consider Keeping Tiago Splitter

Love is one of several noticeable success stories during the 2025-26 season, the Blazers' first with Tiago Splitter leading the charge. Of course, Splitter wasn't the original plan, but Chauncey Billups' arrest by the FBI for off-court gambling led to his interim stint. Splitter is knocking his chance out of the park, though.

Not only has Love made the leap from unheralded rookie to player-to-watch, but Deni Avdija is now in All-Star starter conversations, and Shaedon Sharpe is a 21.8 PPG weapon alongside him in the backcourt.

Having this many players play their best under an interim head coach who barely had time to adjust before the regular season bodes well for Splitter's chances to stick, either in Portland or elsewhere.