Jose Calderon Is Mad

Jose Calderon is pissed off. He's pissed off that he hasn't started the season with a bang since he got banged last year, he's pissed off his shot hasn't been falling, and he's really pissed off that it's only increased the doubters to the point of suggesting that Jarrett Jack should replace him as starter. That changed in New Orleans, when he stood over Chris Paul and stared him down and said who knows what; whatever it was, it wasn't pretty unlike his razor-sharp sideburns.

Since then, while it would be too much to say he's been on a tear, he has regained his shot back, and has started to somewhat consistently attack the rim - with success. Let's not kid our selves, he's been getting rocked defending opposing point guards on the point of attack, but what made it really bad was that he wasn't putting up much on the offensive end either.

And there's no better player than to turn it around against than Chris Paul, pound for pound, the NBA's best point guard. While the Hornets are sucking hard, Chris Paul himself isn't. He was scoring pretty much at will, as he would against anybody because, well, he's Chris Paul, but Calderon ended with 16 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and no turnovers, which is one of Calderon's strengths as he is low-risk, conservative guard. I noticed a little jolt in his step when he hit that deep three, and it became abundantly clear to me when he was jawing with Chris Paul after he caused the turnover...Jose Calderon is pissed. And its great to see.

He may be the nicest guy in the NBA off the floor, but on the court he's a competitor. I honestly think outside of Chris Bosh, he's the toughest player the Raptors have had in the past couple of seasons (until Reggie Evans arrived this year). Now, by tough I don't mean physically, that he doesn't get injured, or some kind of an iron-man type, but tough, as in, he stands up for himself when need be. Think about this for a second: the last two guys he confronted were Kevin Garnett and Chris Paul. That's the NBA's biggest dick/intimidator, and the NBA's best point guard right there.

With Kevin Garnett, Calderon came back with some getting-in-your-face of his own, even with a timeout being called when Chris Bosh, the franchise player and leader couldn't even stand up for his teammate. Bosh, as anytime he faces KG, plays like shit and lets KG's scare tactics get to him. So with Bosh not doing anything, the referees not calling any of the over-the-top antics KG was pulling like crawling on the ground like a dog barking at Jose, Jose stood up for himself, and with some anger too. Enough is enough.

With Chris Paul, while CP3 wasn't overtly taunting JC in any way, you could feel the tone of superiority he was painting all over Jose. Calderon going into that game knew full well what the critics were saying about his inability to perform as of late, and took it to Chris Paul in his own right, but to me, that little confrontation after both of them fell was the ultimate statement. Chris Paul looked at him and then to the referee like "this piece of shit can't get that call against me, you crazy ref?" and Calderon's reaction was something like "That's right, get your ass up and gimme the ball. You're not above me" Even though CP3 IS the best point guard, Calderon was demanding respect.

And looking at last night's game vs the Bulls, he was LOOKING for his shot in that fourth quarter and took those jumpers off the Bosh screen right above the key and nailed'em with confidence. That's the Jose I know, and it's great to see. But what I didn't realize until now is that no matter how much he may struggle in guarding the dribble penetration, he won't accept anything less than respect from opposing players, from KG to CP3.

Calderon is averaging 12.4 points and 6.4 assists going into L.A to face the Clippers tonight, and I expect his assists to go up as the season progresses.

Mirror Image: Jose Calderon and 'Charlie' from 'Lost'

This is just freaky, who knew Jose Calderon doubled as 'Charlie Pace' on the epic tv show Lost'!!?? Okay, so Charlie is really played by actor Dominic Monaghan - but you take Jose, grow his hair and facial hair out longer, and colour it dirty blonde, and you have Charlie "NOT PENNY's BOAT" Pace.

Time To Study Jose.

I haven't been reading what people think of Marion's debut but I loved it. He really gave us what we needed and what became the most evident to me was how everything will fall into place when Bosh gets back. With him getting the board, Marion is free to run and play the fast break. It's hard for him to do that when he has to get the defensive rebound but what's harder and perhaps more painful, is running the fast break but not being passed to.

What am I on about?

10 6 and 6 is not bad, but it would have been higher stats if Jose could play well with him. I don't know how many of you watched him in Phoenix, but what you'd probably notice is that Marion is great without the ball. He's a good slasher, always moving and quite frankly, I don't think Jose knew how to play with that. I can't really blame him being use to playing with Moon and Graham who basically don't move until they get the ball. On a separate note, that 6 assists is amazing. For years people have criticized his passing game but I'm sure you noticed that he has great passing around the rim. Something all our bigs tried to do but lacked the ability. Should be interesting to see how that plays out.

If you get a chance, watch that game and you'll see lots of Marion moves to shake his defender and hang around the rim. A classic alley oop set up from his phoenix days. What was obvious however was that Jose wasn't looking or couldn't see him and instead almost always swung the ball the other way.

Just after seeing a few of those plays I noticed something immediately. It's not about Marion fitting in and learning the system, or even Bosh learning how to play with him. The success of this deal is going to be on how quick Jose can learn Marion's style. So many analysts are out there saying the great thing about Marion is that he doesn't need the ball, he doesn't need the play, what he does is outside of any system. This is where Jose will struggle because although he is a great half court set point guard, he is probably one of the worst fast break point guards in the league.

This is going to be a huge adjustment for him because he is so careful so cautious. To run and gun however, you have to be prepared to accept mistakes. I haven't checked, but I'm sure if you look at Nash's stats last few years during the glory days he probably led all point guards in turnovers. To really run, you have to make those passes that are either going to be an easy two or a turnover and be ready to accept whichever.

Marion loves the quick post up. Get the rebound, run down the key and start posting up ready to do a shot in literally, seven seconds or less. Jose biggest flaw however is holding the ball too much. Watch him on fast break and you'll almost always see him drive towards the rim, see that he's not fast or strong enough to beat the opposition and pull it out. He needs to worry less about doing that himself, and simply look out for Marion the moment you get the ball because he will already be in a position to score. Jose is not faster than most pg's and should know that Marion is faster than most forwards and bet on him during the fast break instead. In fact, Marion almost out of habit always first runs towards the rim, hangs there for about 2 seconds to see if people notice him and then veers back towards the three. If Jose can find him when he gets to that key, Marion has a pretty nice touch around the rim. Many raptors fans would live with a missed shot in the paint for a change. I for one am a little sick of Jose and Parker getting rejected on fast break layups and would rather see Marion get fouled on a fast break DUNK. (which he did attempt in this game to prove my point and was one of the few fast breaks that didn't get rejected.

The second thing Jose needs to learn is something I'm sure all raptors fans have noticed since the beginning of the season. Jose's weakest pass is the alley oop. I remember a few games where he tried 2 or 3 and it was just beyond a disaster. Granted, he has made significant improvement in that area but he needs more. Marion may be the next best transition alley oop player in the NBA behind James. Jose is going to have to throw some more up there because the Matrix is very likely to convert that to at least free throws.

The great thing about it however is that Jose has proven to be a hard worker and a quick learner. Not to mention the fact that if I can notice these things with one live viewing, you can bet your ass they see it when they study tape. With Bosh coming back, things are still looking good for the Raps push.

Low Expectations

It just dawned upon me how surprised I was that the Raptors won last night in Chi-town. And that makes me feel even more pathetic, the fact that I get excited over one game which wasn't a big showdown or anything against a top-tier team. I know we just won and I'm not trying to be a downer, its just feels so...revolting to feel excited about ONE win. We just ended a seven-game losing streak - holy shit how the hell did it get to that? SEVEN GAME losing streak! That's expected from the Thunder, or maybe the Timberpups. It's just a big laugh now that some analysts pegged us before the start of the season to challenge Boston in the east. Here we are, around the half-way mark, fighting for the 8th spot, just hoping to squeeze into the playoffs to be mincemeat for whether Boston, Cleveland, or Orlando.

Does yesterday's win seem like the start of a winning streak, or does it feel more like we just stopped the bleeding? The realist side of me says the latter, but the dreamer in me can't help but feel and hope that we can finally start something (good) again. There was the little streak against Houston and Orlando but all that seemed to be a fluff. But we do have Jose back, and O'Neal (whatever that's worth), so there IS hope, and there's still plenty of time left. But one thing's for sure, after the inflated expectations coming into the season, most of us Raptors fans, who are still sane, have low expectations for the remainder of the year. And maybe that's what we need so we don't keep disappointing ourselves as the losses pile up. After all, there's nowhere to go but up, right? ...Right????

Mediocre Forever Presents: Jose Calderon Saves The Raptors...

First video. Give me your feeeeeeedbacks!