I'm not happy about it either, and I mention in the rest of my post that we would need to upgrade on Calderon in the future to be competitive, but it's naive to be thinking that we're winning anything next year or that it's going to be easy to move Calderon's contract when it has 3 more yrs and about 26.5m left. I can't think of any contract that a team would want to shed so badly that they'd take his. Keep in mind that we had to give up Shumpert just to get rid of JR Smith, who had one less year and over 11M less left on his contract. In return we got nothing.
Yeah I didnt ACTUALLY stop reading your post. Just felt like writing that after reading that atrocious PG depth chart
Just so yall know, I read every word of every single post in here (except during my hiatuses). I mean come on, who am I not to read **** that yall write? So don't think I am some hypocrite coming in here writing essays and not reading a couple paragraphs from the rest of yall
Anyway on to Calderon. He needs to be gone. IMO theres nothing he could contribute to this team that we can't get out of Galloway and Shved in the unfortunate event that we aren't able to significantly upgrade our PG position through the draft or free agency.
The way I look at it, if we do strike out this summer finding a PG, I would rather save a buck or 2 and add some excitement into the mix in seeing if young guns like Galloway and Shved can take us anywhere as opposed to seeing an old worn down Calderon in the mix.
And I say that the Knicks need to rid themselves of Calderon this summer regardless of what happens, because although the ideal situation would be to trade him and get him 100% off of the books, the Knicks could still save A LOT this summer from releasing him. IMO Calderon is not nearly good enough to keep around for next season for what he costs ($ that could and should be spent on players who could help this team win ball games) when we could always just release him if we can't find a trade partner.
But personally I don't think it would be impossible to trade Calderon. I bring up the Memphis/Jeff Green scenario only because Memphis would probably resort to blowing up their current roster if they lost Gasol and they would most likely have no need for Jeff Green, a player who I believe would be a perfect compliment in the trinagle offense next to Melo and Marc Gasol in the front court. I figure a Calderon/Hardaway trade for Jeff Green could make sense because this would help Memphis kind of tank next season and I think that acquiring a potential young starter in Hardaway would entice them into the deal.
But even beyond that Memphis trade, Calderon possesses a lot of favorable traits for a back up PG on a contending team. He is unselfish, a good veteran presence, and usually a dead eye three pointer. There might be contending teams out there who, unlike the Knicks, aren't necessarily worried so much about cap space with their core roster already set. A team like that might be willing to take on Calderon if they don't have to give up anything.
If we can't work out something with Memphis/Jeff Green (if we sign Gasol) and we can't dump Calderon on a contender, we could always try to move him and a young piece like Hardaway Jr. to a team building up young talent with lots of cap space they do not plan to use, like Philadelphia. This would be similar to when the Sixers were willing to take on Amar'e or Bargnani from us if we included Hardaway in to the deal.
The Sixers are in the process of accumulating a lot of young talent. They currently have Noel/Embiid in the front court, Dario Saric abroad, maybe a couple of players currently on their roster they see developing into a rotational player, and as many as 1-3 lottery picks in this draft. However, it has become far more likely than unlikely that the Heat will finish with a top 10 pick (they currently sit at #10 and would only fall out of the top 10 if one of the 4 lottery teams behind them leap frog them into a to 3 spot, which is unlikely) and the Lakers will finish with a top 5 pick (the Lakers currently sit at #4 and would only fall out of the top 5 if 2 teams behind them leap frog them into the top 3 so that 2 of the top 3 selections in the draft this year would come from teams ranked 5-14 in the lottery seedings, also unlikely, I believe the Lakers have an 81% chance of keeping their pick at #4), giving the Sixers only one pick in this draft. Having recently sent MCW to Milwaukee and having their front court occupied, I consider it likely that the Sixers end up with a PG in this draft either Mudiay or Russell.
If that is the case and the Sixers wind up only getting Mudiay/Russell from this draft and having him join Saric (when he returns from Europe), Noel, and Embiid as well as probably Jeremy Grant and maybe some others in players the Sixers are building around, there would be a glaring need for a young swing man to add to that roster. If this is the case, a player like Hardaway Jr. would be all the more attractive for what Philadelphia is trying to do.
The Sixers have a **** load of cap space but no immediate plans to use it, so I am sure they wouldn't mind eating up Jose Calderon's contract if it brought them a young 2 guard like Hardaway Jr. in the process. They could then waive Calderon and not have to pay him all that much anyway.
I think that with this and the other trade scenarios mentioned along with the possibility of just waiving Calderon ourselves and sparing Hardaway Jr. from leaving us this summer, the Knicks could easily turn Jose Calderon into cap space or a player who could help this team a lot more next season. IMO there is no reason that Jose Calderon should be a Knick next year besides Phil Jackson having too much pride to dump his prize acquisition next summer for nothing in return, which I hope is not the case. Calderon is not nearly good enough to warrant the financial burden he would cost this team. There are other point guards we currently have who would be more exciting to watch than Calderon in the event we strike out with PGs this summer, and the $ spent on Calderon should be much better spent elsewhere regardless of what happens with the rest of the roster this summer.
EDIT:
The ONLY scenario in which I could bare us keeping Calderon in NY, is if my whole draft Russell/sign Gasol scenario comes to fruition under the guidline that Jose Calderon be on the team in order for Gasol to sign here.
If that is the case and if Memphis won't listen to the Jeff Green for Calderon/Hardaway Jr. trade scenario that I came up with, then I guess it wouldn't be the worst thing to keep Calderon around as a savvy veteran back up PG for Russell/good friend of our new franchise center.
Plus we would still have enough $ in that case to spend around $10 million on another free agent, which we could use on a forward to play in between Melo/Gasol or a guard to join Russell in the backcourt. Even though it would be nice to cut/trade Calderon and have enough for both but whatever.
If we drafted Russell, signed Gasol, and traded Calderon/THJR for Jeff Green, we would have a lineup of Russell/Melo/JG/Marc Gasol set up and still have $10 million or so to spend on a 2 guard. **** does that sound nice
