Trail Blazers Face Looming Decisions on Futures of Sidy Cissoko, Caleb Love

Note: A previous version of this story suggested use of the stretch provision to open a roster spot and save money. That option is only available in the offseason. This section has been removed.

One side effect of the number of injuries the Trail Blazers have faced this season is they've had to rely far more on their two-way players than any team with postseason aspirations should.

The good news: two of those players, Sidy Cissoko and Caleb Love, have emerged as legitimate contributors over the first half of the year.

The bad news: since both of them are on two-way contracts, they can only be with the Blazers for 50 games each before they have to either sign them to standard NBA contracts or let them go.

The latter isn't really an option with either Love or Cissoko, and keeping them will require some maneuvering from general manager Joe Cronin over the next month.

Even as the Blazers start to get some of their players back who have been out for a while—including Jrue Holiday over the weekend and Jerami Grant potentially as soon as tomorrow—they're still dealing with other injuries. Love will remain in the rotation at least until Scoot Henderson and Blake Wesley are back in the lineup, which could be weeks out. Cissoko will still be needed even once Grant is back, because Kris Murray is now out indefinitely with a back injury and Deni Avdija just suffered a back injury of his own.

Plus, Cissoko and Love have flat-out been good enough to deserve regular minutes, even putting the injuries aside. After a shaky start to his rookie season, Love has shot 36.5 percent from three-point range on high volume (6.5 attempts per game) since the start of December while improving as a defender and playmaker. Cissoko's size, defensive pressure and playmaking have bailed the Blazers out more than a few times when they've been shorthanded, and he's shown the ability to hit an open three. They're both real players with real NBA futures.

But the Blazers don't have any open roster spots, with 15 players under contract.

There are going to be some decisions that have to be made in the coming weeks in order to keep Love and Cissoko, whether it be before or after the Feb. 5 trade deadline. Here's a look at where things stand and the ways they could solve this roster crunch.