CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As soon as NBA free agency opened, the Cleveland Cavaliers set their sights on veteran point guard Jose Calderon, ultimately signing him to an official contract a few days after the league moratorium passed.

Out of the early-season rotation -- watching Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert and others get their chance first -- Calderon has shown why the Cavs were so dogged in their offseason pursuit.

"He's an oldie but goodie," Kevin Love said. "Whether he's playing five minutes or 35 minutes, he's going to be Jose and go out there and knock down shots, play with a lot of poise. He's been great for us.

"He's really getting us off to good starts and making big plays, getting us in our sets and being super scrappy, picking up full court on the defensive end. He's just done a really, really good job for us and he had a great game tonight."

Calderon scored a season-high 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 5-of-8 from 3-point range to go with six of the team's 32 assists. That kind of game would typically earn him a meeting with the media. But when the locker room finally opened following the Cavaliers' 121-112 win against the young Los Angeles Lakers, Calderon was already gone.

"That's typical Jose," one team member said with a laugh.

Prior to Thursday's game, he sat at his locker with headphones, listening to music. The other night, he was snacking on overnight oats.

Nothing about Calderon is flashy. He tends to get overlooked on a team dotted with All-Stars and future Hall-of-Famers. While he may be understated, his value to the Cavaliers shouldn't be.

"He settles things down. He's always been a safety valve for a team," Dwyane Wade said. "I used to hate when we played against him because he never turned the ball over, he never made risky passes and obviously as he's been showing lately he can knock open shots down. It's been good for us. He's been stable for that position, for that group and for the team."

Since Calderon was named the starter on Nov. 20, the Cavs are 12-1, their only loss coming one week ago at the hands of the Indiana Pacers. Their offensive numbers have risen across the board during the stretch as well. The Cavs rank third in offensive efficiency and effective field goal percentage, fourth in assist ratio and seventh in 3-point percentage.

"First of all, if you know Jose, if you're any historian of the game, since he's been in the NBA he's always been up there in assist-to-turnover ratio," LeBron James said.

Calderon boasts an assist-to-turnover ratio of nearly 4-to-1 over 13 years. He's only committed 17 miscues in 335 total minutes this season. Rose has 19 in 188 minutes.

"That's great to have at the start of your offense. And then he shoots extremely well from behind the arc," James added. "So you add that basketball IQ, you add how well he takes care of the ball and how well he shoots the ball and he will give up his body. You seen him taking the charge tonight as well."

The season-long numbers aren't overly impressive. Calderon's averaging 4.3 points on 50 percent from the field and 51.4 percent from 3-point range to go with 1.9 assists in 16.7 minutes.

Still, he's an ideal fit for the Cavaliers -- better than Rose -- and he's changed how opponents can defend them.

As Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown said the other night, success and failure on defense nowadays depends mostly on the high pick-and-roll.

There are many different strategies. The Cavs like to blitz, sending two defenders at the ball handler aggressively to force it out of his hands. This is their most successful tactic against teams with one dominant player and it helps mask some defensive deficiencies. Of course, opponents don't dare do this against Cleveland, not with the amount of shooting it has on the floor at all times. That strategy is out.

There's also hedge, drop, ICE and a few others. But Calderon's presence has limited the options.

His shooting reputation keeps teams from going under screens. That was the plan early this season, especially with non-shooter Rose running the show. Rose's inability to knock down perimeter looks caused spacing issues, forced the Cavs to alter their scheme and restricted the offense.

It's a big reason why they've been outscored by 17.6 points per 100 possessions with Rose playing alongside the four other usual starters. It's why the Cavs have an offensive rating 108.3 with Rose on the court and 114.2 with him off.

Now there are five shooters at all times, creating the ultimate headache.

On Thursday, the Lakers, like other teams lately, became worried about going under screens. Can you blame them? Calderon shoots better than 50 percent from beyond the arc this season and is a career 41 percent long-range bomber. Going under gives him open space to launch, which they learned early.

In the second half, the Lakers tried to switch, which often leads to numerous exploitable mismatches.

"We're an inside-outside team, and if teams switch on us then we gotta try to beat them up in the post," James said.

They did. Kevin Love, taking advantage of smaller defenders all night, scored 28 points on 9-of-15 from the field, 4-of-6 from 3-point range and 6-of-6 from the foul line. He was 3-of-4 in the paint.

Love against Lonzo Ball? No problem.

Versatile Jeff Green took advantage of switches, scoring all of his points inside. So, too, did James, who made seven of his eight shots in the paint on a rare night when his jumper abandoned him.

And when the Lakers chose to double Love or James or even load up on backside cutters, Calderon burned them.

Yes, suddenly the lesser options -- Shumpert or Rose -- opponents used to be able to help off aren't there launching low-percentage jumpers.

"Guys tease him all the time like he's a hell of a shooter, but sometimes, he won't shoot," Lue said of Calderon. "Just taking his shots and being aggressive and that opened up everything else for us tonight."

It's actually been that way since Rose's injury, which looked like a problem at the time, especially with Thomas already on the shelf because of his achy hip. But Calderon has steadied the spot.

Because of James and Wade, the Cavs don't need much from Calderon or any other point guard. All they need is someone to play pesky defense, make the right reads on both ends, get the Cavs into their offensive sets, identify mismatches and knock down open shots or keep the ball popping, depending on the defensive look.

What happens when Thomas gets healthy is being kept under wraps. But that's a decision for another day.

For now, Calderon has found his role, one that few -- if any -- expected.