The Chicago Bulls traded Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks this week, in return they received new Bull Jose Calderon along with Jerian Grant, Robin Lopez.
This will provide a look at one of the three players that the Bulls are receiving in the Derrick Rose trade now that the deal has been finalized and no further movements were made on draft night.
Player: Jose Calderon
Position: Point guard, shooting guard
Remaining Contract:
2016-17 $7,708,427
Calderon was likely added to this deal initially to make the money work. There have been complaints about his salary, but that is mostly nonsense. The salary cap is shooting to a comical $94 million in about a week. At that point $7 million for a backup point guard that can absorb minutes is great. If Calderon plays well and takes on an even larger role, it will be an even greater value. If you’re still not sold on his contract at this point, take heart. He only has one year left and then the surrogate Kirk Hinrich will be off the books altogether.
Career Info: Veteran
Calderon is probably quite near the end of his professional playing days in the world of basketball. He’s not quite Pablo Prigioni-old, but he will reach the age of 35 by the end of the 2016-17 season.
Beale Street Bears
His age should also indicate that he has a long playing career and if he were a scrub, he would have washed out by now. Calderon has played for the Raptors, Knicks, Mavericks and Pistons over 10 NBA seasons. His best season was probably a season in which he was traded, 2012-13. Calderon started the year with Toronto, where he spent most of his career, before being traded to Detroit. In that season he shot a career-high 46.1 percent from 3-point range while averaging 11.3 points and 7.1 assists in 29.6 minutes per game.
Role for Bulls: Starter?
Like was mentioned earlier, Calderon was brought to Chicago to help even out the money and I’m sure that the Knicks didn’t mind parting with Calderon since it meant that they would have Rose on the court most of the time anyway.
The current roster is flush with guards who either do run the point, or can. The Bulls just acquired Spencer Dinwidde in a trade with the Detroit Pistons and brought over Jerian Grant in addition to Calderon in the Knicks deal. The Bulls also have Jimmy Butler who has proclaimed that “playing point guard is easy.” That also doesn’t account for free agency where the Bulls may be active and look to bring back either Aaron Brooks or E’Twaun Moore.
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On Friday, however, there was a twist as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune threw a little nugget into a Denzel Valentine-centric Bulls piece where he states, “Jose Calderon is likely the penciled-in starter.”
That development is not ideal. It is bewildering and disheartening. Not because Calderon isn’t capable of facilitating an offense, but the Bulls just acquired two other options at the same position that are much younger and have much higher potential. The best case scenario for the Bulls might be keeping Calderon on the bench and bringing him in as a shooting guard to spread the floor and provide outside scoring. For his career, Calderon shoots 41.2 percent from 3-point range.
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If Calderon does open the season as the starter, which is a fairly big if since we are still in June and Chicago is the hot topic of all the biggest trade rumors of the off-season to date, there is no reason to believe he stays in that position over the course of the season. I mean, unless the Bulls are starting their own version of The Process.