Houston Rockets: Should They Go After Jose Calderon?

It’s been a while since the Houston Rockets have been able to give the ball, and the offense, to a natural point guard. Of course, the latter is a direct result of having James Harden, the most talented shooting guard in the game, take over the team’s offense.

Unfortunately for the Rockets, James Harden can’t play every single minute of every single game.

Money-wise

Jose Calderon is cheap — about $7 million per year cheap. With the salary cap increasing in the near future, the Houston Rockets shouldn’t have a problem paying said amount.

Taking on Calderon’s contract would leave the Houston Rockets, roughly, at $63.5 million and $57 million in salaries for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 season, respectively. Whereas bringing back Goran Dragic, even if he’s way better than Calderon, will likely come at a steeper price.

If the past is any indication of the future, Dragic’s Suns’ offer won’t be an easy one to match, at all.**

Basketball Reasons

Offense

Sure, Jose Calderon, at 33 years-old, is past his “prime.” However, his 9.3 points per game are still very close to his career-high of 12.8. As long as the Houston Rockets hold Calderon’s usage exclusively to James Harden’s and Patrick Beverley’s bench minutes, they should be fine.

Career

Rk	Player	G	MP	FG%	3P%	2P%	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	PTS
1	Patrick Beverley	138	27.0	.404	.365	.452	.794	3.5	2.9	1.2	9.0
2	Jose Calderon	673	28.9	.476	.413	.507	.876	2.5	6.7	0.9	10.2

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/16/2015.

2014-15 Season

Rk	Player	G	MP	FG%	3P%	2P%	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	PTS
1	Patrick Beverley	41	30.9	.386	.365	.417	.725	4.5	3.3	1.1	10.7
2	Jose Calderon	39	30.2	.424	.436	.415	.963	3.1	4.6	0.7	9.3

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/16/2015.

As you can see from the previous tables, Calderon and Beverley are very close to being the same player. Also, Calderon might have a chance to shoot more under the Rockets’ pace-and-space offense than he actually has with the New York Knicks.

Defense

OK, here’s the only argument — and probably the most impactful one — against the Houston Rockets’ pursuit of Jose Calderon. It is well known that the Rockets’ defense is “struggling” to keep up and has slipped as of late.

Even though their offense is performing at a high-level, by averaging 103.1 points per game, their defensive performance is the main reason why they have a ninth-in-the-league +3.3 net rating — seventh in the Western Conference — that holds them from dominating games as they should.

Jose Calderon is a defensive liability to say the least. And he “holds” (if you can call it that) opponents to a 53.4 shooting percentage on shots defended by him. Whereas Goran Dragic holds opponents to a cool 44.7 shooting percentage.

A huge drop-off.

Squeezing out wins, by whatever margin, is exactly what the regular-season is all about. Nevertheless, a sudden flip of such a small winning-margin could eventually kick the Houston Rockets out of their title pursuit.

Of course, it would be way better for the Houston Rockets to land Goran Dragic, however, they don’t exactly need someone that expensive to take over their offense for such a small period of time. Not when you’ve got the NBA’s best shooting-guard playing out of his mind.

Anyways, if everything fails, they could always bring back Jeremy Lin.

*Not that they’re not contenders at the moment but the right piece could turn them into the deepest team in the Western Conference.

**See: Eric Bledsoe‘s $70 million / 5-year deal.

Next: James Harden and Taking the League By Storm