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Knicks News: Jose Calderon Feels Better About Himself and Team

By William Lee

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A happy and healthy Jose Calderon is feeling better about himself and his New York Knicks‘ teammates, as per Al Iannazzone of Newsday.

"“I feel better,”“The atmosphere, the environment, everything is different for whatever reason. I’m really comfortable, maybe knowing what the coaches want, what the system is, the people. You know everybody and you know how everybody is, what they want from you.“"

Right off the bat Calderon’s New York career was mired in injury, suffering a right calf strain during preseason after being acquired for Tyson Chandler in the summer. Calderon would continue to struggle with his health throughout the season, with his season coming to an end early, undergoing platelet-rich plasma, blood-spinning procedure for his strained left Achilles tendon.

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Last season, with the preseason injury setback, Calderon lost precious time building up team chemistry as a newcomer. Losing the ability to learn when and where his teammates want the ball. As a result Calderon’s point guard productivity suffered, recording the second worst assist percentage in his career. A metric that is the estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor. Calderon with a career assist percentage of 36.5%, only recorded a 25.6% assist percentage last season as a Knick, per Basketball Reference.

Another stat indicating Calderon’s lack of familiarity with the Knicks’ offensive system and his teammates last season is the assist to turnover ratio stat. A stat indicating the number of assists a player has for every turnover that player commits. With a career 3.94 assist to turnover ratio, Calderon only dished out 2.64 assist for every turnover committed last season, per NBA.com.

Calderon knows he was not his typical efficient self last season, he understands that he under-performed last year but feels this upcoming season will be different.

"“If you look at the numbers [last year], for sure I didn’t play as I usually do. I don’t know if the numbers this year are going to be better or not, but I think I can help more.”“It’s totally different. It was a tough season, so I’m really happy and more comfortable just being healthy and being able to be a little bit more free. It’s all of that together.”"

Legendary New York center Willis Reed questioned the Knicks’ team chemistry last season. After training camp, it would seem like Calderon agree with those sentiments, saying he feels more comfortable with his new teammates.

"“We have a really good group of guys: veterans, professionals that know how to play basketball,”“I think we have the pieces to be a really good basketball team. We just have to keep working. Maybe it’s that too why I feel comfortable. I think the guys we signed make me feel comfortable as a point guard.”"

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This summer New York’s roster was almost completely overhauled, Phil Jackson got rid of some bad eggs and signed only high character players to the roster. Over the summer New York signed Arron Afflalo, Robin Lopez, Kyle O’Quinn, Kevin Seraphin, Derrick Williams, and Sasha Vujacic. Along with the rookies Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant being drafted in June, there is no problem-child like J.R. Smith of year’s past. Something head coach Derek Fisher feels that will be beneficial to Calderon’s ability to lead the team.

"“I think he’s enjoying the way our roster’s constructed,”“These are the type of guys that when you have the makeup that Jose has, there are certain guys that you enjoy playing with, certain guys that maybe not so much.”“As the leader of a team, it’s important to feel like you can lead a group. But that group has to be willing to follow. And I think Jose feels good, like we have a group of guys that will follow the leader.”"

Calderon with 42 regular season games under his belt, as well as this year’s training camp and preseason, should be more familiar with the triangle offense. Hopefully it was just injuries last season that kept Calderon from being his typical efficient self on offense, and not something more serious, like declining skills as the Spaniard just turned 34 years-old last month.

Next: Carmelo Anthony says HELL NO to waiving his no-trade clause

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