This is always the sort of inherent contradiction with Jose Calderon. He puts up stats but hardly ever plays well. And he gets away with it because the Raptors are not a closely followed team around the league. So people might read box scores and think "Oh, Calderon had 9 assists last night! That's pretty good!" But then not shown in the box are all the times he let his man blow right past him, all the times he held the ball through the whole shot clock, with no offensive movement, and then finally made a single pass to a perimeter player for a contested heave of a three pointer. The Raptors have been terrible for years, and Calderon has been right at the heart of that problem, and not some lone bright spot. Then when Calderon is benched for being bad--which happens quite frequently--Lowry is maybe like the 4th guy they've brought in at this point to replace him--Jose will sulk and play without energy. Even if he's given starter's minutes off the bench, he'll sulk and suck. So there is some prima donna stuff going on there as well, behind the scenes, but it's just not made public. He puts on this "tireless professional" facade while going to great lengths to undermine his teammates, namely the promising younger point guards who are brought in to replace him. He's a complete tool and no team but the Raptors would ever let a player linger on a roster for this long after pulling stunts like he has. It'd be like if the Rockets still had Aaron Brooks just...hanging around for no reason. Causing trouble. Ruining Jeremy Lin's and Toney Douglas' confidence, turning the team and fans against them, and making them out to be bad guys. What kind of crap organization allows that sort of thing? Well, the Raptors. The Raptors do.
Lowry is who he is. A pretty good PG who got where he is by working his butt off, but as a limited ceiling. His instincts and BBIQ are mediocre for a PG. Dragic had a higher ceiling with his extra size and PG approach. I think the same for Lin.
For what it is worth: http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1221320&sid=e6e5d54c7001576c6daa85ff022a9b05
he was very good at one point, specifically in 2007-2008 season I think when TJ Ford was out for a while and he took over as the starting pg. He was super aggressive, he shot lights out from everywhere, made great decisions off his drives to open shooters and cutters, his defense was suspect then but his offense more than evened that out. He was doing this ****e to the big three, and everyone in Toronto, including myself loved him. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nNysIRYObjM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> And then I think pulled his hamstring or something in 2008 I don't remember the exact time, but he was never the same to me after that because he was too afraid to drive and his shot wasn't lights out anymore either.
Calderon does a very good job showing up to big/personal games. He whooped Jeremy Lin both last year and this year. The only reason Calderon's game in Toronto was forgotten last year was because of Lin's 4th quarter heroics. Ironically Toronto fans seem to be the most under-appreciative of Calderon. They say he's a perfect example of a player putting up good stats (assists) on a crappy team, which is somewhat true. Calderon is the type of player that will make a good team better but will never turn a bad team around. Hence his good stats on a losing team. I can't imagine how much the Lakers would improve if he were in LA.
So basically, Kyle Lowry is the new TJ Ford? The parallel is uncanny. Also costing the Raptors a lottery pick and injured?
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/46017/the-toronto-raptors-peyton-manning-jose-calderon
Once again, I don't think Lowry's being given a fair chance. Whenever he's healthy and playing Casey always uses the "play 2 PGs at the same time" lineup (even though it obviously isn't a good fit for the Raptors). Yet after Lowry got injured we don't see much of Lucas and Calderon sharing minutes together (I don't watch much games when Lowry is out though, so feel free to correct me). It just seems like Casey is forced into giving Calderon minutes at the 1 which forces Lowry to play the 2. And of course, not having to play with Bargnani has greatly benefited Calderon (and the rest of the team) imo. I just think it's too early to write off Lowry and deem Calderon as savior when his 6 wins as a starter consists of wins against the Pistons, Cavs, Magic, Dirk-less Mavs, Granger-less Pacers, and a Rockets team who just can't seem to win in Canada.
The Raptors get another win, this time against the mighty Orlando Magic. I hope their fans realize their team should be winning these games regardless of who their point guard is, and that net-negative Bargnani being out has helped them do so.
This winning streak against some of the league's worst teams will end up getting Lowry benched so he walks as a free agent, and will get Calderon resigned for 5 years / 40, won't it? lol that organization has no idea.
Er, how exactly did he "whoop" Lin last year? The game where Lin shot a game winner over him they were pretty well matched Lin: 27 points, 11 assists Calderon: 25 points, 9 assists Then they met again last year and it was, Lin: 18 points, 10 assists Calderon: 11 points, 8 assists, And the final time they met last year both were sucking, Lin: 6 points, 4 assists Calderon: 2 points, 10 assists, Also, the first game this year (while he wasn't a starter) he didn't exactly "whoop" Lin either: Lin: 16 points, 10 assists Calderon: 12 points, 7 assists, Only in the last game did he do that. So 4 out of 5 ain't bad...
I have some friends in Toronto who always joke about Calderon being their starting PG forever. Seems like it's not a joke anymore... I can already see it now. Lowry comes back, either he's benched or starts but plays significant mins with Calderon, gets pissed and leaves at the end of the season. And Raptors won't even have their lottery pick come draft night. All they'll have is good ol' Jose Calderon.
