Steve Nash wins, and poor Jose Calderon loses – again
So it turns out that all-world point guard Steve Nash isn’t going to be a Toronto Raptor next year.
Boo hoo.
Wonky back and all, the 38-year-old received a contract offer from the Raptors reportedly worth $36 million over three years, but ultimately signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.
While I like Nash – who doesn’t? – and I appreciate the veteran leadership he would have brought to a young Raptors team, I don’t think his presence would have done anything more than make them a fifth- or sixth-seeded playoff team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference – at best.
It’s also hard to see why he would have been a huge upgrade over the incumbent, 30-year-old starter Jose Calderon – who, like Nash, isn’t a great defender – and backup Jerryd Bayless.
I don’t buy the argument that if the Raps couldn’t entice the best baller Canada has ever produced to play in Toronto, they’ll have little chance at enticing other free agents to sign here.
Players don’t sign with the Raptors because the team is awful. One playoff series victory in 17 seasons is the only statistic you need to know in that regard.
I also don’t agree that signing Nash was the only way for the Raptors to remain relevant to Toronto sports fans. Building a winning team from the ground up is the way to become relevant to more than just die-hard hoops followers like me.
Nash clearly used Toronto’s offer as leverage to get a three-year deal worth $27 million from the Lakers, who would otherwise only have offered him a maximum of two years, and it may have a been a bit rich – even crass – of him to use being closer to his three Phoenix-based kids (who live with his ex-wife) as justification for signing with L.A.
Despite this, Nash handled himself with class during the brief period of speculation around what he would do. As an unrestricted free agent, he was entitled to take the best deal he could get, and the one with the Lakers makes sense for him.
He gets to take one last shot at a ring – a bit of a long shot, given the Lakers’ weak bench – and he gets to hobnob with Jack Nicholson and Steven Spielberg, which surely can’t hurt his post-basketball aspirations for a filmmaking career.
It isn’t really fair to pin the Raptors’, or Canada’s, hoop hopes and dreams on a guy who didn’t ask for the Canada’s only NBA team to pursue him.
Besides, he’s isn’t the only aging superstar to take less money to win this off-season.
Ray Allen, 36, has spurned the Boston Celtics to take a $3-million, one-year contract from the Miami Heat – roughly half what the Celtics could have paid him – to join Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James in Miami to try to help the Heat win a second straight championship next year. (Bosh and James themselves left money on the table to chase a championship with Wade and the Heat two years ago.)
However, some effective tips are mentioned ahead that may prevent free sample of cialis the acid from entering into the food pipe. view address discount order viagra This means that the cells usually are packets of microscopic potentials, which awaits their instructions to change into the cell type that is prepared taking in to concern the wellness of the individual. Conant, clinical adjunct professor at the University of California also stated that a healthy heart leads to a healthy diet. find for more cialis 10 mg When the thyroid gland dysfunctions, a wide range of issues like infertility, dry skin, loss of libido and buy generic cialis https://regencygrandenursing.com/life-at-our-facility/picture-tour depression will occur.
Once the Raptors lost out on Nash, they moved quickly to acquire disgruntled point guard Kyle Lowry, a reported defensive pit bull who averaged 14 points and almost 7 assists last year, from the Houston Rockets in exchange for a first-round draft pick and little-used shooting guard Gary Forbes.
The team also announced that it has rescinded its $4.2-million salary offer to last year’s backup, the scoring-minded, injury-plagued Bayless, 23, effectively making him a free agent.
So Plan B appears to be Calderon and Lowry at point, with DeMar DeRozan, Landry Fields (the Knicks’ restricted free agent whom the Raptors signed to an outlandish offer sheet) and rookie Terrence Ross at shooting guard, with a spare part to be named later at third-string point guard.
The only problem with that scenario is that Lowry apparently wanted out of Houston after losing his starting job, which means he may not be happy sharing duties with Calderon.
And once again, Calderon, a first-rate offensive point guard, finds himself sharing duties with a player whom management thinks is more athletic and more talented. And, as he’s also done before, Calderon will be a pro about it and not complain.
Not that he wouldn’t have some right to grouse if he did.
He’s only averaged close to nine assists per game the past two seasons (he’s 7.2 lifetime and is his team’s all-time assists leader), and he’s only one of the league’s best free-throw shooters and a legitimate scoring threat when he needs to be. He’s also perennially among the league leaders in assists per turnover.
Despite these numbers, he seems to get little respect from hoops fans and sportswriters south of the border, never mind from his own GM. (Bosh used to lament his lack of visibility in the U.S. when he was a Raptor, and although Calderon could make the same argument, you never hear a peep from him.)
I suspect Bryan Colangelo, who became the Raptors’ GM in May 2006, never really liked Calderon, who was acquired by former GM Rob Babcock the previous year, as his starting point guard, despite re-signing him to a five-year deal in July 2008 reportedly worth $7.5 to $8.5 million a season.
Recall that when he acquired T.J. Ford for Charlie Villanueva in 2006, Colangelo said the team needed a true point guard.
Was Calderon chopped liver? And if so, why re-sign him two years later to a contract that at the time paid him as if he were one of the league’s elite point guards? It made him rather hard to move, although engineering a trade may be a bit easier now, since his contract expires after next season.
(In the 2010 off-season, Colangelo very nearly traded Calderon and power forward Reggie Evans to Charlotte for centre Tyson Chandler and forward Boris Diaw before Bobcats owner Michael Jordan came to his senses and nixed the deal.)
If I had to bet, I’d say Calderon will be moved before opening day to one of the 10 or more teams where he’d be an upgrade at the point, or he’ll be shipped out at the trade deadline to a team seeking a good offensive point guard and looking to make a push deep into the playoffs.
Sure, Calderon can’t (or won’t play) defence.
But Raps fans – including this one – will miss the chatty Spaniard when he’s gone, and no doubt helping some other squad become a legitimate contender.
About The Author
