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Hamilton: Win over Sixers and Calderon’s debut fuels Knicks hope for new beginning
November 22nd, 2014 11:39 pm
Moke Hamilton, NBA Analyst
Christmas may still be over a month away, but on Saturday night, the New York Knicks got two gifts—a 91-83 win over the hapless Philadelphia 76ers and the debut of Jose Calderon.
USATSI_8115444_110579513_lowresCalderon started and played 21 mostly effective minutes, though he shot just 1-for-6 from the field. He finished with three points and three assists, but the numbers belie what his true contribution to this Knicks team may ultimately be.
“I don’t think there’a nothing like playing with great PGs,” Carmelo Anthony said afterward. “Back in Denver, I had Chauncey [Billups], even earlier, having Andre Miler on that team, even here with [Jason Kidd],” Anthony recalled, “We’re just trying to build something here.”
Now, Anthony’s Knicks will attempt to build it with Calderon as they attempt to dig themselves out of the 4-10 hole that has resulted from their slow start.
“Jose was good tonight,” Derek Fisher said after Saturday night’s win. “It looked like he was able to find some comfort level, though you could tell that he was easing his way into being really aggressive out there.”
With the Knicks set to play just three games over the next seven days, Calderon will have the opportunity to ease his way back into things, though the Knicks will need him to hit the ground running.
On Saturday night, his numbers didn’t exactly jump off of the stat sheet, but the primary hope for these Knicks is that Calderon can provide the Knicks with a steady and experienced hand at the point guard position and help the team build some momentum.
As a player, the Spaniard has made a living by being one of the best statistical shooters of this generation of NBA point guards. Over the course of his nine-year career, Calderon is a 48 percent shooter from the field, and for a point guard, that is excellent. His career marks from the three-point line (41 percent) and the free-throw line (87 percent) are equally superb.
Most importantly, though, with regard to the triangle offense that the Knicks are still working to implement, Calderon is a great playmaker who excels at seeing angles, finding teammates and taking care of the basketball. His career assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.08 is one of the best in NBA history.
Whether or not that can translate into success with Fisher’s triangle playing Knicks remains to be seen, but at the very least, what Calderon will provide is a spot-up shooter who can make opposing defenses pay for collapsing on the interior against the likes of Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. The duo combined 41 points on an efficient 15-for-26 from the field on Saturday night, and with them attracting attention on the interior, Calderon’s marksmanship will certainly come in handy.
USATSI_8222104_110579513_lowresMore so, Calderon hopes to give Fisher another needed hand at the point guard position, simultaneously lessening the burden on the green Shane Larkin and diminishing the need for Iman Shumpert to play the point guard position—a position that at least some pro scouts believe he is not fit to play.
On Saturday night, while the Knicks were sending the Sixers to an 0-13 start, just a few miles away, in Brooklyn, the Jahill Okafor-led Duke Blue Devils did battle with the Stanford Cardinals at Barclays Center. With the Knicks owning their 2015 first round pick and beginning another identity shift and rebuild with Fisher and Anthony as the co-stars, the slow start to the season has hastened the discussion as to whether or not the Knicks would be better off missing the playoffs and collecting a lottery pick in this June’s draft.
After just 14 games, though, it’s a bit too early for that kind of talk.
That is especially true considering the Knicks have played 13 of those games without Calderon and all 14 of them without Andrea Bargnani. The latter was also inching toward making his season debut before suffering a calf strain on Friday during practice.
As the Knicks attempt to turn their season around, things will not get any easier. Three-straight road games at the Rockets, Mavericks and Thunder will be followed by a seven-game stretch that will see the Knicks do battle with seven teams that all figure to be competing for playoff spots come April.
With Calderon back, though, the Knicks hope to be competitive, at the very least.
“Jose is a smart point guard, he’s a smart guy, he’s been around, he’s played a lot of games, he knows how to run a team, he knows how to run an offense, especially an offense like this,” Anthony said on Saturday night. “He can shoot the ball, he can spread the court. Most importantly, his I.Q. out there on the basketball court is very high and that’s something out there at that position we’ve been missing,” the All-Star said.
“I’m happy it’s over with and I’m healthy,” Calderon added. “We won, that’s the most important part. It’s always good to get a win in your first game back. There was some rustiness out there, which I expected, but it’s good.”
Hopefully, for Phil Jackson, it gets better.
Weeks ago, in addressing the media, Jackson let it be known that he and Fisher would both take a somewhat patient approach in evaluating their team and the results and that Thanksgiving and Christmas would be the time that the front office would cast ballots on determining which players “are learners, and which are not.”
USATSI_8222111_110579513_lowresThe time is near, and fortunately for everyone involved, the Knicks are inching a bit closer to being at full strength.
Iman Shumpert, jovial after the team’s rare win, joked that it was easier to address the media after walking away victorious. Indeed, the locker room was in high spirits.
How long those good times last, however, will depend on what kind of difference Calderon truly makes and whether he can prove to be a difference maker against some of the tougher competition that the Knicks will face over the next few weeks.
As the centerpiece of the Chandler trade and the most notable acquisition Jackson has made thus far, the hope for Fisher and Jackson both is that Calderon himself proves to be “a learner,” and that, for Anthony, he can join the list along with Andre Miller, Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd—point guards with whom Anthony has excelled.
If history is any indication, he should fit seamlessly into what the Knicks are trying to do, and if Saturday night was an omen, Calderon could soon become known as the gift that keeps on giving.
For Calderon personally, Saturday night marked the beginning of his career as a Knick.
For the Knicks, collectively, they hope it marked a new beginning for a season that has quickly gotten off on the wrong foot.
11/23/2014 12:07 AM