Mark Cuban: Shawn Marion will love playing with Jose Calderon
By Mike Dyce
Mark Cuban has been on a campaign dedicated to defending his signing of point guard Jose Calderon. Cuban is confused while Dallas fans are frustrated with the Calderon signing especially after struggling to find a solid replacement for Jason Kidd.
“I was shocked when people thought that we signed a bad deal with Jose Calderon,” Cuban said, via Earl K. Sneed of NBA.com, “because the guy shot 50 percent I think from three and the market for guys that just catch and shoot threes and do nothing else was higher than what we paid for Jose. Add to the fact that he knows how to play point guard, knows how to get Dirk the ball, knows the game … and never turns it over, I mean literally I was like, ‘What are people thinking?’ I mean, yeah, he might not be the best defender, but it’s not like he’s replacing a great defender, and so I was really, really surprised by the response to Jose.”
After Cuban defended Calderon he said that Marion will love playing with him.
“I think he’s going to make us a much better team, and I’ll look at Shawn Marion. Shawn Marion is going to love playing with Calderon, because Shawn knows how to use space as well as anybody in the game and we didn’t have a guy who could get him the ball. Dirk and Vince were the two best passers to get the ball to ‘Trix, so I think there’s just so many things to get excited about. … If you look at Dirk being 80 percent of what he was the year we won, if you put the pieces we have around him — plus Vince coming back, Brandan Wright coming back, ‘Trix coming back and then Samuel Dalembert, someone who can finally block shots and rebound — I think, you know, if we stay healthy, knock on wood, we can be decent.”