Toronto’s Jose Calderon-The NBA’s Underrated Point Guard

The Associated Press reports on Jose Calderon’s fine play in a recent win over the Chicago Bulls:

Starting in place of the injured T.J. Ford (sore left arm), point guard Jose Calderon had 19 points and 14 assists for Toronto.

"Jose is playing fantastic right now," Bosh said. "He’s moving the ball where he’s supposed to and taking good shots. He’s just poised and controlled. We need that right now, especially with T.J. being out."

My Quick Take: Chris Paul and Deron Williams are easily the NBA’s best young point guards. Paul is jitter-bug quick; Williams will develop into Jason Kidd with a jump shot.

Jose Calderon is the up-and-coming table-setter you’re sleeping-on. Along with T.J. Ford, he gives the Toronto Raptors a lethal 1-2 punch at point guard.

The Spaniard makes great decisions. This year, he leads the NBA with an assist to turnover ratio of five to one. In his last three games, Calderon has played 122 minutes, dished out 34 assists, and only turned the ball over 3 times.

Calderon is also unselfish. He could start on most NBA teams, but has never made an issue of coming off the bench-even when he’s outplayed Ford for long periods of time.

Great point guards posses an intangible quality. Steve Nash exudes positive energy, Jason Kidd is confident enough to throw a no-look pass in clutch situations, and Chauncey Billups wants to take big shots.

Calderon also has his own unique characteristic. The third year pro loves to compete and values each sequence on both ends of the floor.

Pretty soon, Generation Next- Paul and Williams- could have some company. And then Calderon won’t be overlooked and underrated.

Is Calderon underrated? Get at us in the comment box below with your thoughts.

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