Jose Calderon provides so much to Cavs that a box score doesn’t account for

It seems as though every NBA championship team has that one non-star player that does so much for the team, yet it’s so much that isn’t necessarily a number in a box score or can necessarily be noticed unless you watch the game and follow the team all season.

During the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2016 championship run, it was Matthew Dellavedova. While he accumulated plenty of stats, the point guard also did so many things that a simple box score can’t account for. He made his teammates better both offensively and defensively and provided 100 percent effort whenever his number was called.

For the 2017-18 Cavs, it seems as though guard Jose Calderon has filled that role perfectly. He may only be averaging 4.6 points, 2.1 assists, and 1.5 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game (55 games, 32 starts), but he provides so much more to the wine and gold that a box score or statistic just can’t do any justice for. Whether it’s his leadership, ability to knockdown an open shot, or just simply being a player that doesn’t make many mistakes, Calderon has been a tremendous help to this year’s Cavs. The 36-year-old may not make any highlight-reel plays, but he manages the game and gives the wine and gold a player the team can count on off the bench, or even in the starting lineup at times. His basketball IQ and ability to make plays and find the open man puts his teammates in the best position to succeed, yet rarely is ever jotted down in a box score unless he earns an assist. You can’t ask for much more than that from your third-string point guard. It doesn’t hurt that he is shooting 51 percent from the floor and a career-high 47 percent from long distance, knocking down shots when given the opportunity, especially when he’s open.

What he provides to the Cavs became even more apparent during Cleveland’s 112-106 win over the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night, the East’s top-seeded team with just a handful of games remaining in the regular season.

While going against All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry, Calderon not only outplayed Lowry, but the veteran was one of the best players on the court as well. Yes, you read that right. At 36 years old, the guard (somehow) notched 19 points, four assists, four rebounds, one block, and two steals Tuesday night. He made his first six shots of the night and scored 11 first-quarter points, seemingly unstoppable in the pick-and-roll with LeBron James in the opening 12 minutes. The guard’s 19 points were the most he has scored since he notched 20 points on February 24, 2016, when he was with the New York Knicks.

He also notched a team-high plus-27 in just 26 minutes to help secure a much-needed win over Toronto and give the Cavs plenty of confidence heading into the final seven days of the regular season. Coincidence or not, Cleveland is now 23-9 when Calderon starts. That has to mean something, right?

When the Cavs signed Calderon to the veteran’s minimum on the first day of free agency last July, many fans questioned the move. Why sign a player of that caliber so early on and strap yourself down with one less roster spot? Why sign a player that virtually brings nothing but another body to your team rather than wait and see what else is out there? Why sign Calderon, especially after coming off his worst season in the NBA?

Flash forward nine months, and it seems as though signing Calderon was not only the right move, but a move that has played into the Cavs’ success so far this season. Who would have thought that? No one besides possibly Cleveland’s front office, probably.

With George Hill nursing an ankle injury,¹ Calderon has not only been counted on to play a bit more than his usual minutes, but has also been thrown into the starting lineup for much of the last few weeks as well.

No matter when Calderon is thrown into the game, for how long his stint is, and whether it’s his first game in a week or two or not, the veteran continues to give the Cavs his all and provides so much to a title contender. Here are some examples of Calderon always being ready:

• Calderon didn’t play more than 20 minutes in a game until the 17th game of the season. In that game, he had 14 points while knocking down 4-of-5 from the field, 2-of-2 from beyond the arc, and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.
• After combining to play just 13 minutes in 11 games from mid-January to the first week of February, the veteran played 20 minutes against the Hawks on February 9. He scored 11 points while knocking down 5-of-7 shots from the field in the game.
• Following that game, he played just 26 minutes in the next 11 games. The next game he totaled at least 20 minutes was March 11, when he played 21 minutes against the Lakers. Calderon scored 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting that night.

He may not score much or even rack up many things that an average fan may notice, but Calderon deserves to get the playing time that he has continued to receive, especially with Hill out. The biggest question is, will the veteran guard make the postseason rotation? When it comes to the playoffs, rotations shrink, with the majority of teams sticking with eight or possibly nine players that see the court. With the Cavs having as deep of a roster as they do, it will be interesting to see how the rotations are figured out. As of now, acting head coach Larry Drew said following Tuesday night’s game that Calderon will play in the playoffs as long as he feels good.

“It depends on how he feels. If he feels good, then he plays,” Drew said when asked about Calderon possibly making the postseason rotation. “If he feels good, we put him out there.”

If you would have told the majority of Cavs fans back in October that Calderon and even Ante Zizic would be playing well for the Cavs in the last month of the regular season, they not only might have asked who those players were, but they most likely wouldn’t have believed you even if they knew the players. Yet here we are in April and those two players have been a big part of the Cavs over the past month while a number of players have nursed injuries.

Even if it’s for 10 minutes a game, Calderon deserves to be in the playoff rotation. He simply makes the Cavs and his teammates better and you can’t ask for much more than that.

1. Will the Cavs ever be fully healthy? It’s ridiculous, really. [↩]