Toronto Raptors: Jose Calderon Blogs "I Want To Be a Starter"

“Where I’m at right now in my NBA career,” T.J. Ford told the Post “I consider myself a starter and don’t see myself coming off the bench for 82 games.”  While Calderon has taken a less strong point of view in the past “Whether I’m a starter or not, I want to win a championship. I’m ready to sacrifice for the team, for sure.”

So is it a possibility?  With Ford’s attitude about starting and Calderon’s declaration today, it doesn’t seem likely.

Without Calderon’s compromise, things could have gotten ugly.  Now with the season over, Jose feels free to air his feelings.  What he is saying essentially is that he could do a better job for Toronto not only as a starter, but as Toronto’s primary ballhandler.

As of this post, it seems as if Calderon will be beginning games in Toronto for the 2008-09 NBA season.  Not only are there rumors that the Raptors are trying to trade Ford, TJ’s overall performance in the 2008 NBA Playoffs was miserable.

For the Orlando series, the tandem’s main numbers were very similar; both put up between 11-12 points, 6-7 assists, 3-4 rebounds, all in 23-24 minutes, but the difference was in the details.

Calderon was simply more efficient than Ford in every category, and by a significant percentage; FG% (44% to 36.2%) 3pt% (47.6 to 12.5%), FT% (100% to 93.8%) and total turnovers (6 to 10).

The National Post recently released their final grades for all of the Toronto Raptors players. Calderon received the highest grade on the entire team with an overall grade of an A, Chris Bosh received a B+ and T.J. Ford received a C.  (Italian F-C Andrea Bargnani received an overall grade of an F).

Here’s what they the Post had to say about Calderon: Toronto will re-sign him unless some team offers him the max, which won’t happen. He deserved the votes he got for most improved player, and should be the starting point guard next season.

Need another reason why Calderon will be back in a Toronto uniform next season?  It came straight out of the Raptor’s GM’s mouth, “It’s a very safe assumption that Jose will be back in a Raptor uniform.”  Unless some NBA team goes nuts and overpays Calderon, Jose will be back with the Raptors running the offense for 40+ minutes.

For more international basketball news: www.interbasket.net

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