OAKLAND — When the team released Briante Weber Saturday night, Steve Kerr insinuated the Warriors would be adding a point guard.
Bay Area News Group’s Anthony Slater has found out who that point guard is: Jose Calderon.
Earlier on Saturday, Marc Stein reported the Los Angeles Lakers were working on a buyout with the 35-year-old Spanish point guard. It appears as if that’ll happen as soon as Sunday.
Entering his 12th NBA season, Calderon hasn’t been much of a factor for the Lakers this season, appearing in just 24 games. Calderon’s play has been in decline since he left his longtime team, the Toronto Raptors, in 2013. He’s played for the Mavericks, Knicks and Lakers the past four seasons. Calderon is a career 41.1 percent 3-pointer shooter, though.
The good news for the Warriors is that Calderon can eat up minutes late in the season without taxing Shaun Livingston. Golden State’s unbalanced roster has often forced the important role player into garbage time minutes out of the necessity of having a ball-handler on the floor.
In an interesting paradigm, Warriors players did seem disappointed Weber was being released. He worked his tail off and had become friends with nearly everyone on the team. Steph Curry said he even gave him some parting words of advice, and thinks he will land somewhere else around the league very soon,
But who knows, under Kerr’s offensive system, Calderon’s passing could be a bigger asset than anticipated. The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly picking up point guard Deron Williams, and initially, this move seems like it could be a chess move to keep up — although Williams should play a much larger factor than the Warriors are expecting from Calderon.