On the list of missions accomplished in the first half of the Toronto Raptors’ schedule, getting Jose Calderon to play up his trade value must surely be at the top.

Yet when general manager Bryan Colangelo and head coach Dwane Casey and his staff do their blue-skying for next season, and figure out the point-guard ‘what-ares’ in the upcoming draft, the trade ‘might-be’s’ and free-agent possibilities, they may well reach an obvious conclusion: the Raptors might be best-served keeping Calderon.

“We’re trying to hold on to him and keep him, but he has played his way into a very high status as a point guard,” Casey said Wednesday, before the Raptors beat the Detroit Pistons 103-93 to hit the halfway point of the NBA’s condensed 66-game regular-season schedule with a .303 winning percentage (10-23.) “A lot of teams have been calling and wanting him.”

via Jeff Blair of The Globe and Mail