I love reading blurbs like this one.
The Clippers — like many teams — have pinpointed Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon as an attractive target this off-season.
Calderon is a restricted free agent but is also sharing point guard duties in Toronto with T.J. Ford. The Raptors can match any offer made to Calderon and have stated publicly that they intend to do so.
Let’s see… Calderon is 26 and averaged 8.3 assists in 30.5 minutes of playing time last season. He shot 52.5% from the field, 43.3% from long range and 90.8% from the free throw line. Calderon had the fifth-best Efficiency Per Minute of all the point guards in the league, trailing only Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Deron Williams and Chauncey Billups. (That means he’s ahead of guys like Baron Davis, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd and Allen Iverson.) Yeah, I’d say that he’s an “attractive target” this summer. That’s some crackerjack detective work there by the Clippers front office.
By the way, good luck wresting him away from the Raptors. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I don’t remember too many success stories of teams signing a medium- to big-name restricted free agent to an offer sheet that the player’s previous team didn’t match. The three that jump to mind are Denver’s offer to Manu Ginobili (which the Spurs wisely matched), Miami’s offer to Elton Brand (which the Clippers wisely matched) and Utah’s offer to Corey Maggette (which the Clippers wisely matched). You either have to overpay to get the other team to balk or hope that they’re completely inept and don’t match the fair offer sheet the player signed. That, or wait a year and hope that they become an unrestricted free agent.
If I’m running the Raptors, I’m locking Calderon up to a five-year deal in the $7 M-$9 M per year range. He’s still flying a bit under the radar, so his market value isn’t as high as it will be next summer.
Here are a few restricted agents that will likely play for their current team for at least another season: Josh Smith, Andre Iguodala, Emeka Okafor, Luol Deng, Monta Ellis, Ben Gordon, Daniel Gibson, Delonte West, Josh Childress, J.R. Smith, Andris Biedrins, Sasha Vujacic and Paul Millsap.
