Now that the entire NBA knows that Phil Jackson will take pennies on the dollar for his few remaining assets, there are two tams that should be picking up the phone this morning and trying to take Jose Calderon off his hands.
Those teams are the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings. Both are in win-now mode, and both could use a 41 percent career 3-point shooter who knows how to run an offense and get the ball into the hands of Dwight Howard or DeMarcus Cousins in the deep low post.
Yes, Calderon is 33 with his best years behind him and $15 million remaining on his contract beyond this season. But he is not done — he shot 42 percent from downtown for Dallas in the playoffs last season as they took the eventual champion Spurs to seven games in the first round.
If you are Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro, who gets pestered with phone calls from owner Vivek Ranadive each and every day, do you call Jackson and offer him Derrick Williams for Calderon? Williams will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season, and thus fits Jackson’s need for an expiring contract from a player who theoretically could have some upside (he was the No. 2 overall pick of the 2011 draft, lest we forget). Add Calderon to a roster that has Darren Collison as the starting point guard and Ben McLemore as the starting 2-guard, and you have another weapon that can help you get into the hunt for a playoff berth. The Kings are already all-in with their roster from a salary cap standpoint, having given long deals to Cousins and Rudy Gay, so it is not like they would be taking an enormous risk by bringing in a veteran floor general who can steady their bench unit.
If you are Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, watching your team become more and more dependent on James Harden while watching Dwight Howard’s production plummet, do you make a run at a player who would be an upgrade offensively over Patrick Beverley? With Jackson apparently looking for little more than a second-round draft pick (I am of the opinion that he got fleeced in Monday night’s three-team trade), do you offer the Knicks back the second-round pick that you stole from them a couple years ago in the Marcus Camby trade? That pick, along with Jason Terry and his expiring contract, might get a Calderon deal done.
More on the three-team trade, and the impact it will have on the Knicks, Cavs and Thunder, in this interview with CineSport’s Noah Coslov:
Calderon to Houston would be terrible for the Rockets. Beverly is a decent spot up shooter (fits our style) and tier 1 defender at the PG. We need defense, not marginally better offense. Harden is our facilitator, and we’d much rather have him there than having Calderon siphon touches. Plus we have Jason Terry. Terrible idea.