The Detroit Pistons have long coveted Jose Calderon.

“We’ve tried to acquire him several times from Toronto over the years and were very close a couple of times,” Pistons general manager Joe Dumars said. “This is someone we’ve had high regard for a while because we just really like his skill set and we thought his skill set could be a very good match with the young guys we have.”

Dumars sees Calderon as a distributor and shooter capable of playing alongside Brandon Knight.

“I believe that having two guards that can handle the ball, that can score, that can pass, that can initiate your offense, I think that’s probably worked in Detroit before,” Dumars said. “So I’m a believer in that. I think you can have two guards in the backcourt and our message to Brandon is simply that it’s easy to play with another guard in the backcourt that can do all the things that you can do. It kind of makes you a two-headed monster. It’s going to allow him to look to score more. It’s not like we’re going to take the ball out of his hands completely. They’re going to share the duties. We think it’s going to be a good fit for him.”