Cavs interested in Jose Calderon

What can Jose Calderon bring to the Cleveland Cavaliers?

According to Jason Lloyd of The Athletic, the Cleveland Cavaliers have interest in signing free agent Jose Calderon to be their backup point guard. The interest is mutual.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had interest in Calderon as far back as February, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.

Calderon, who only averaged 3.4 points and 2.1 assists per game in the 2016-2017 season, isn’t a point guard that will take fans’ breath away. That’s especially true considering his age at 35-years-old and lack of quickness. After watching Deron Williams struggle to keep up with players on the perimeter, the Cleveland faithful would have wanted a younger or more athletic point guard who could make impact plays as a defender.

However, in looking at the differences between Williams and Calderon, the difference starts on offense.

While Williams was one of the most elite passers in the NBA at a time, Calderon was an above average facilitator in his heyday with averages of 8.0 assists per game across a six-year span. With his experience and affinity for setting up teammates, and his aversion to risk-taking (he’s never averaged more than 2.2 turnovers per game) he’ll be a solid player for the Cavs in a halfcourt setting.

The difference between he and Williams though is that while Williams would consistently try to score in isolation and, a lot of times, expose his lack of explosiveness, Calderon makes most of his scoring contribution off-ball. He shoots 43.2 percent from the corner three for his career and even in what was a down year for Calderon behind-the-arc last season, he shot 35.3 percent on catch-and-shoot threes. In the 2015-2016 season, he made 42.8 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes.

For a team like the Cavs, who sucks defenders into the paint with the threat of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving driving to the rim, Calderon will be a solid off-ball outlet.

When considering his on-ball production, Calderon is a very solid shooter from the midrange. He made 42.1 percent of his shots from 15-19 feet last season and 50.0 percent of his shots from the same range in 2015-2016. He has a career average 45.7 percent shooting from 16-24 feet away from the rim.

Because of his lack of explosiveness, expecting Calderon to consistently make it to the rim and finish without using a screen foolhardy. Fortunately, he has career average of 65.3 percent shooting from 0-3 feet away from the rim in part because of his play in the pick-and-roll. In fact, Calderon made 53.8 percent of his shots as the pick-and-roll ball-handler (for comparison, Williams made 47.5 percent of his field goals in the pick-and-roll).

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With Calderon’s experience, passing ability and shooting ability, he should be able to thrive in these situations. Because he won’t force the issue and try to get to the rim if he can’t, Calderon’s ability to pull-up from the midrange is particularly important.

Defensively, Calderon is more lithe than given credit for and because of his size, at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, he’s the type of point guard that can be matched up against opposing shooting guards or non-shooters. While most Cavs fans are concerned about Calderon’s perimeter defense, it’s necessary to remember that they play Shaun Livingston and other non-shooters. Against lineups with multiple players who aren’t three-point threats (remember the Cavs left Draymond Green open because of his lack of shooting ability), the floor will shrink and Calderon will have less space to cover.

All in all, this is the type of player that the Cleveland Cavaliers can rely on for about ten minutes per game and keep Kay Felder on track to eventually be the team’s backup point guard.

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