I was Very Wrong about Jose Calderon
I was Very Wrong about Jose Calderon
Written by Kevin Nye (@kevinpnye) on 21 March 2018
Written by Kevin Nye
(@kevinpnye) on 21 March 2018
Jose Calderon was an understated signing this past summer. I was not impressed with it. He has been extremely good in his role, and I'd like to apologize.
Jose Calderon was an understated signing this past summer. I was not impressed with it. He has been extremely good in his role, and I'd like to apologize.
When the Cavaliers signed then-35-year-old Jose Calderon in July, it was a non-factor of a signing to me. I thought it was pointless. I was mad. My general disappointment was enough that I didn't even give Calderon his own article. Instead, I stuck my anger in the middle of this article, noting all the younger-than-him point guards who were still available at the time.
It's important to note that while I wasn't too fond of the Derrick Rose signing, I even had Rose ahead of Calderon. That's how uninterested I was in Jose Calderon. (If you know me, this seems impossible because of how I feel about Rose. I have never liked Derrick Rose - I used to argue with my roommate in Chicago about him to the point that I still text him about how I didn't like Derrick Rose six years ago)
Jose Calderon, if you're reading this, I was wrong. I was so very wrong about you and your abilities. You are a damn near perfect fit in your role with the Cavaliers. Thank you for ignoring my earlier indifference.
How good has Jose Calderon been this year?
The stats can be a little confusing because his minutes are so spotty (thanks, Ty Lue) that raw stats are odd. For example, it's hard to take Calderon's 3.9 points per game and make anything of it. He's had 23 DNPs on the season, but when he's played, it's been for about 15 minutes a game.
I like to find statistics that either fly in the face of my expectations or confirm everything I see, but with Calderon, neither happens immediately. His Basketball-reference page is rife with unimpressive numbers: over a 23 game stretch from November to January, he started 22 games and played over 21 minutes in each of them. He only averaged 5.0 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.8 rebounds. He also turned the ball over fewer than once per game. So what was he doing out there?
He was making 46% of his three-pointers. He was moving with and without the ball. He was setting little-man screens. He was yelling a lot. He was picking up opposing guards on the inbounds pass under the basket (note: in a several months old episode of Road Trippin, Channing talked about how irritating that is for an opponent. They hate it. Jose gets in dudes' heads immediately because he knows he doesn't have to do it for 40 minutes per game). He was making smart passes. He was getting his teammates involved. He was putting other players in position to succeed. In short, he has been doing everything he's asked to do.
He just plays within himself.
Per Synergy Sports, among players who have appeared in more than 20 games this season, nobody is more efficient at spot-up scoring than Jose Calderon. Nobody. Not Kevin Durant, not Kyle Korver, not CJ McCollum, not Steph Curry, not Bradley Beal. Nobody. Calderon is scoring an absurd 1.562 points every time he spots up. (For clarity's sake, if somehow he were to do this on every possession, the Cavs would average 153 points per game.)
As a team, the Cavs have obviously been up and down. They're only outscoring opponents by 0.3 points per 100 possessions - they're scoring 112.3 and allowing 112.0.
In the 724 minutes that Calderon has played, the Cavaliers have an offensive rating of 122. The defense slips a little to allow 114 per 100, but when the offense works that smoothly, who cares?
Cleaning the Glass corroborates. Their data - which is a gold mine - shows that the Cavs take the same amount of corner threes with or without Calderon on the floor, but they take almost 6% more three-pointers overall. When Jose plays, they shoot about 3.5% higher on all threes, including shooting 8% better from the corners when he's on the floor. He's just a floor-spacing savior.
On a non-statistical level, a Cavs-watcher will hear announcer Fred McLeod talk about the calming presence of Jose Calderon. It's not quantifiable, but it does seem to be real. The Cavaliers just take better care of the ball, move more, and generally seem to relax when Jose is out there. It's remarkable.
I'm sure there's more to say about Jose, as he's turning in a really solid season despite all the Cavaliers' injuries. They are 18-8 when he starts at point guard. Not bad a for 36-year-old who I wrote off as an afterthought.
When the Cavaliers signed then-35-year-old Jose Calderon in July, it was a non-factor of a signing to me. I thought it was pointless. I was mad. My general disappointment was enough that I didn't even give Calderon his own article. Instead, I stuck my anger in the middle of this article, noting all the younger-than-him point guards who were still available at the time.
It's important to note that while I wasn't too fond of the Derrick Rose signing, I even had Rose ahead of Calderon. That's how uninterested I was in Jose Calderon. (If you know me, this seems impossible because of how I feel about Rose. I have never liked Derrick Rose - I used to argue with my roommate in Chicago about him to the point that I still text him about how I didn't like Derrick Rose six years ago)
Jose Calderon, if you're reading this, I was wrong. I was so very wrong about you and your abilities. You are a damn near perfect fit in your role with the Cavaliers. Thank you for ignoring my earlier indifference.
How good has Jose Calderon been this year?
The stats can be a little confusing because his minutes are so spotty (thanks, Ty Lue) that raw stats are odd. For example, it's hard to take Calderon's 3.9 points per game and make anything of it. He's had 23 DNPs on the season, but when he's played, it's been for about 15 minutes a game.
I like to find statistics that either fly in the face of my expectations or confirm everything I see, but with Calderon, neither happens immediately. His Basketball-reference page is rife with unimpressive numbers: over a 23 game stretch from November to January, he started 22 games and played over 21 minutes in each of them. He only averaged 5.0 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.8 rebounds. He also turned the ball over fewer than once per game. So what was he doing out there?
He was making 46% of his three-pointers. He was moving with and without the ball. He was setting little-man screens. He was yelling a lot. He was picking up opposing guards on the inbounds pass under the basket (note: in a several months old episode of Road Trippin, Channing talked about how irritating that is for an opponent. They hate it. Jose gets in dudes' heads immediately because he knows he doesn't have to do it for 40 minutes per game). He was making smart passes. He was getting his teammates involved. He was putting other players in position to succeed. In short, he has been doing everything he's asked to do.
He just plays within himself.
Per Synergy Sports, among players who have appeared in more than 20 games this season, nobody is more efficient at spot-up scoring than Jose Calderon. Nobody. Not Kevin Durant, not Kyle Korver, not CJ McCollum, not Steph Curry, not Bradley Beal. Nobody. Calderon is scoring an absurd 1.562 points every time he spots up. (For clarity's sake, if somehow he were to do this on every possession, the Cavs would average 153 points per game.)
As a team, the Cavs have obviously been up and down. They're only outscoring opponents by 0.3 points per 100 possessions - they're scoring 112.3 and allowing 112.0.
In the 724 minutes that Calderon has played, the Cavaliers have an offensive rating of 122. The defense slips a little to allow 114 per 100, but when the offense works that smoothly, who cares?
Cleaning the Glass corroborates. Their data - which is a gold mine - shows that the Cavs take the same amount of corner threes with or without Calderon on the floor, but they take almost 6% more three-pointers overall. When Jose plays, they shoot about 3.5% higher on all threes, including shooting 8% better from the corners when he's on the floor. He's just a floor-spacing savior.
On a non-statistical level, a Cavs-watcher will hear announcer Fred McLeod talk about the calming presence of Jose Calderon. It's not quantifiable, but it does seem to be real. The Cavaliers just take better care of the ball, move more, and generally seem to relax when Jose is out there. It's remarkable.
I'm sure there's more to say about Jose, as he's turning in a really solid season despite all the Cavaliers' injuries. They are 18-8 when he starts at point guard. Not bad a for 36-year-old who I wrote off as an afterthought.