The Rose Garden Report is a fully independent publication providing coverage of the Portland Trail Blazers and Portland Fire that you can’t get anywhere else. Purchasing a premium subscription gives you full access to all articles and ability to participate in mailbags, as well as helping to cover travel costs and other expenses to bring you the best coverage possible.
The Trail Blazers have converted Sidy Cissoko from a two-way to a standard NBA contract, the team announced Friday morning. In order to create a roster spot to sign Cissoko, they waived Rayan Rupert.
Portland's last game before the All-Star break, a win last Thursday over the Utah Jazz, was Cissoko's 50th game of the season. He was set to be ineligible to play the rest of the season unless the Blazers converted him to a full NBA contract. Two-way players are also not eligible to play in the playoffs; Cissoko will now be able to take the court in the postseason if the Blazers make it.
Cissoko joined the Blazers in the middle of last season on a two-way contract after being traded twice the week of the 2025 trade deadline and then waived by the Washington Wizards. This season, as injuries mounted, he established himself as an important rotation player, starting 24 of the 50 games he played on his two-way deal.
There is a bittersweet element to Rupert being the roster casualty that allowed Cissoko to be converted. The two Frenchmen, who have been close friends since they were kids, were drafted back-to-back in the second round of the 2023 draft. Rupert has been unable to consistently crack the rotation in his first three seasons and was set to become a free agent this offseason.
One of the Blazers' other two-way players, Caleb Love, may be coming up on a roster decision soon, too. He has five remaining games of two-way eligibility before he, too, has to be converted to a standard NBA contract. But with Portland's newfound guard depth with Scoot Henderson, Blake Wesley and Matisse Thybulle healthy, they may delay that decision and not convert Love for a while, if they do at all. They would have to waive another player to convert Love, and barely had enough room under the luxury tax to make room for Cissoko.
Now that Cissoko is on a standard deal, the Blazers have an open two-way spot that they can backfill alongside Love and Javonte Cooke.
Donations help support independent coverage of the Portland Trail Blazers and Portland Fire.
