Jose Calderon: Which Team Makes Sense to Acquire the Spaniard?
By William Lee
Jan 21, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; New York Knicks guard Jose Calderon (3) reacts to an official
Putting Jose Calderon’s Game Under the Microscope
Jose Calderon is a complete liability on defense, never known for being a defensive stopper, Calderon in his younger days at least made up for his lack of speed with his high basketball IQ. Now at age 33, his immobility has only increased, even if his brain is telling him to get to the right defensive spot, his body is not able to get there fast enough.
NBA.com has a Diff% stat which is defined as – The difference between the normal field goal percentage of a shooter through the season and the field goal percentage when the defensive player is guarding the shooter. A good defensive number will be a negative because the defensive player holds their opponent to a lower field goal percentage than normal. Calderon’s Diff % numbers are so positive, and so bad, it is ridiculous. Calderon can neither guard the perimeter nor the paint. Calderon’s defensive assignment opponent’s percentage overall is +8.5%, but that number jumps up to +12.1% when contesting three-pointers on the season. The percentages only gets worst when Calderon is taken off the dribble and taken to the rim, +14.9% within 6 Ft. and +14.5% within 10 Ft.
What Calderon does bring to the table is being an effective floor general on offense. Calderon career averages are close to the 50-40-90 club, in which a player’s shooting percentage are at or above 50% from the field, 40% from three, and 90% from the free throw line. Calderon came close a few times in his career, while reaching this achievement in 2007-08 (51.9FG% – 42.6 3P% – 90.8FT %), and just missing it by a hair in 2008-09 (49.7FG% – 40.6 3P% – 98.1FT %). Calderon also takes care of the ball extremely well, with a career 4.02:1 assist to turnover ratio, although he is having the worst assist to turnover ratio in his career this season with 2.77:1. This can be attributed to Calderon’s struggle with acclimating himself with the triangle offense.
Next: $15,111,239 Reason not to Acquire Jose Calderon