Golden State Warriors Set To Swap Briante Weber For Jose Calderon

After giving him two 10-day contracts, the Golden State Warriors are letting Briante Weber go and reportedly have interest in adding Jose Calderon.

The Golden State Warriors nearly lost to the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night, but the most interesting thing about the evening for Warriors fans was what head coach Steve Kerr said afterwards.

According to ESPN, Kerr let the media know that Briante Weber would not be retained after his second 10-day contract, and that the Dubs would be looking into adding a veteran guard in his place going forward.

That same ESPN article lists Jose Calderon as the first option, once he reaches a buyout agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers, his current team. Hooray for buyout season!

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Weber didn’t get a chance to prove much in his time with the Warriors. He played a grand total of 46 minutes across seven games. In that brief stretch Weber had trouble making shots. He converted just five of 14 field goal attempts and none of his three attempted threes, ending his stint with Golden State with 12 total points, five assists, four rebounds, three steals, one block and three turnovers.

There is reportedly interest around the NBA in Weber, but the Warriors don’t exactly have playing time available for any sort of a project player. The team was smart to give some run to a younger player who might develop into a good option, but Golden State needs contributors who can add to the team immediately.

That’s where Calderon comes in. The 35-year-old point guard is hardly playing in Los Angeles this season, mostly because of younger players like Jordan Clarkson and D’Angelo Russell above him on the depth chart.

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Calderon is a shooter and scorer first, and he’s led the NBA in both three-point percentage and free throw percentage in separate seasons earlier in his career. It’s been four years since he shot 46.1 percent from deep with the Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons, but if there was ever a team to bring Calderon back to form it’d be these Warriors.

Even in very limited playing time with the Lakers, Calderon was nailing 35.3 percent of his threes. He’s a career 41.1 percent three-point shooter, and Golden State likely won’t be asking him to do all that much besides pull on some triples.

Shaun Livingston is currently the only backup point guard on the roster, so adding Calderon will give Kerr some more flexibility in his lineups, plus some insurance in case Livingston or Stephen Curry has to sit out a game.

About a quarter of Livingston’s minutes have come at shooting guard this season, and he’ll be able to play there more with another capable point guard on the roster.

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Calderon’s defense is less than stellar and he’s getting up there in years, but in a certainly limited role on the Golden State Warriors, he should be able to come in and produce in a way that the younger Weber simply was not able to.