It’s not difficult to see the ways in which the fan base has grown tired of Terrence Ross. Scanning the comments section of this site, or reading the opinions of its writers, the narrative comes together quite easily. Dude has a resting grumpy face, lacks aggressiveness on the court, doesn’t take advantage of his wildly impressive athleticism (or hasn’t learned how to yet), and, very plainly, hasn’t been able to play up to the ‘D’ part, of being a 3-and-D wing. For a recent example of such criticism, check out the first half of Zarar’s podcast with Tim Chisholm, where they intellectually shit all over the former eighth overall pick.
But there are some things we’re not talking about.
In my opinion, it never seemed as if he was put in a position to succeed. Met with groans on draft night, the fan base treated him as if he was Rafael Araujo, as we watched Andre Drummond slide by just like Andre Iguodala had years ago. The parallels between those two situations were glaring from the beginning. I thought the pick didn’t make sense for other reasons.
Terrence Ross is a shooting guard and one look at his wiry, slight frame suggested he was always going to be better suited to guarding 1’s and 2’s, as opposed to 2’s and 3’s. Except, when we drafted him we already had a defensively limited off-guard in DeRozan, who despite obvious effort and improvement from season to season, never projected as someone big enough or laterally quick enough to guard a position other than the two. Not to mention, despite Ross’s three point shot, and DeRozan’s funky mid-range, foul-baiting game, not much ever separated their physical profile and abilities. Both have shown ball handling and passing/court vision weaknesses, both are dunkers who excel on the break, and both were sold as athletic and raw, high ceiling prospects. From the beginning, it seemed like the pick was redundant.
A few years later, and our collective patience has almost run out with the 24-year old role player. We’ve seen what he has to offer and been there to watch his pull-up jumper get blocked time and time again. I practically scream at the television in these moments, thinking, ‘Doesn’t he know he needs to have a quicker release if he’s going to shoot in traffic?’
As a slasher, with the ball or without, I’ve only seen him be successful in transition, and along the baseline, the latter of which he’s shown the capability to succeed off of back door cuts, rising up for alley-oops or reverse dunks. His ball handling is very suspect, he has no shake, no change of pace, and he struggles to navigate against physical contact. He also doesn’t get to the free throw line, which is where DeRozan makes a living. These are pretty much things we’ve all been talking about for a while now.
The one thing I refuse to cite as a negative though, is his social media presence; I understand that people generally have no sympathy for professional athletes when they appear childish, I on the other hand am fighting for the side that says its okay for them to act like they’re human every once in awhile.
It’s very clear, he’s our scapegoat.
Every team needs a scapegoat, and he’s ours. It’s a tough role, but it’s actually a necessary one. David Lee was the Golden State Warriors scapegoat last year, Chris Bosh was the scapegoat for some of those Miami teams, J.R. Smith has spent time scapegoating just about everywhere he’s been. While it’s easy to hate, we shouldn’t forget that these ‘types’ of players, Terrence Ross included, still have a potent skill set when on the court.
One look at his basketball reference page, and you can see there are some nice stats. Specifically PER36, for his career, Ross has made 2.4 trey’s per game at a .373 percent clip. Those are very good numbers. What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t boo him off the court. He’s still battling with Patrick Patterson for the position of team’s best shooter and the space he creates on offence is needed.
Not to mention, and stay with me here, I think Terrence Ross would come back to haunt us if he were traded; If I’m Danny Ainge or Sam Hinkie, or maybe even Daryl Morey, I’m licking my lips at the chance of Terrence Ross. I’d take a glimpse at the resume, make note of the dunk contest and the 51-point game, and see that he’s a shooter whose been playing in a system not suited to his strengths. He seems like he could be a good candidate to rebound elsewhere.
There are grumblings about him being a sour puss, a locker room wart, but it’s hard to know what to make of that. There are also no clear off the court problems in the typical domestic assault, substance abuse vein. I’d wager that there are at least a few GM’s willing to bet that if he was asked to play his actual position, in a pace and space offence, he might find more success offensively, which could lead to less distractions and more focus on the defensive end. Not to mention he’s also maintained his health his whole career, and he’s still just twenty-four, with room still left to work out the kinks. Doesn’t he sound like the type of player who would get traded and come back to haunt us?
I’m not sure what to make of him this upcoming season. Dwane Casey has mentioned that he’ll look for Terrence Ross to reprise a bit of Lou Williams’ role from last season as a bench scorer, although that makes very little sense. There is one thing that I am sure of though, and it’s that we’re coming up to the crucial point, the deciding line that will tell the rest of his future with the club. It doesn’t look very promising as he’ll likely be asked to be more productive with less opportunity, but don’t preclude him from success just yet.
(Just look at it, it’s real, you can see it, you’re allowed to dream it can happen again)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLUxO_dcTQE
On a completely unrelated note, I had the good pleasure of watching in-person our Canadian Men’s basketball team win 96-76 against Mexico Thursday night in the preliminary round of the Pan Am games. Here are some observations:
- Sim Bhullar is almost comedic on the court in his huffing and puffing. His hands were on his hips for most of the game, and he was a step slow almost everywhere on the court. He has a lot of work to do physically if he wants to get into the league.
- Jamal Murray impressed, showing great handles, passing awareness and offensive instincts. He’s long and athletic, and has size for his position. Although, his shot release is low near his chin and he showed hesitancy attacking left when there were open lanes to do so.
- Brady Heslip is a talented offensive player and showed a lot of polish, I hope he sees a ten-day somewhere this season.
- Anthony Bennett and Andrew Nicholson both played well, but I wasn’t particularly wowed by either. I was expecting more from Bennett.
