For those of you that read my articles (all four of you), you already know that I am pretty impressed right now by Jose Calderon. I watched him flat-out destroy the Celtics on Wednesday night by pretty much penetrating at will, hitting every kind of shot, and making the correct pass in every situation. The Raptors shot 57% from the field and better than 70% from long-range on Wednesday, and while this was clearly an anomalously torrid shooting night for them credit still has to be given for Calderon breaking down the defense enough to lead to a lot of open shots.

I'd seen Calderon play before, but I'd never really paid that much attention to him. I figured him as a solid platoon-guy with T.J. Ford that could produce decently as a starter, but nothing really special. I scoffed a few weeks ago when I saw ESPN stat guru John Hollinger endorse Calderon for the All Star Game, but I'm scoffing no longer. After watching him Wednesday then really going back through his numbers over the last couple of seasons I'm ready to declare him worthy of mention in the same breath as his 2005 point guard classmates Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Ray Felton.

Now, my question for those that have been paying attention to Calderon for longer than I have: am I overreacting? Is he really THAT good? That one game was very impressive, but I don't want to make myself look silly by lauding him so hard only to find out later that outside of that one game his numbers are generally a lot more hollow. Because before Ford's injury Calderon came off the bench, and there was lots of talk that the Raptors might lose him this summer to free agency. But if Calderon is really as good as he looked on Wednesday, I can't imagine that the Raptors would let him get away for any nor sit him again for any reason even with a solid player like Ford as the replacement. And for the rest of this season, Calderon is now firmly entrenched among the upper echelon point guards in my rankings. I once worried that Ford's return would ruin his value, but right now I'm ready to declare him a top-30 fantasy player for the rest of the year. Am I wrong?