Will the real Terrence Ross please stand up?
I’ll admit that I’ve dished out my share of Terrence Ross hate this season. And in Terrence’s defense, he’s been playing very well recently. However, I will argue that any Raptor fan who truly cares for the team and their overall success was probably equally frustrated with Terrence Ross at least at some points during this season – here’s an explanation of why.
As I dig deep into the vast ocean of mediocrity surrounding the Raptors franchise for the past 20 years of its existence, there are a ton of draft day busts and disappointments that come to mind. Arguably the most notable and recent in the latter category was Andrea Bargnani – probably not a “bust” given he had a solid rookie year and respectable first few years, but clearly a “disappointment” given where he ended up. For those of you who unfortunately still remember the details of that situation – you’ll recall that it wasn’t one that stemmed from the lack of performance of a player. To be more specific, at some point, we all asked ourselves – was Bargnani even talented enough to be a 15 point per game scorer in the league? Strictly speaking with regards to talent, it appeared obvious that Bargnani was more of a Colangelo overestimation than anything more. The guy had no business going number 1 overall.
With Terrence Ross, however, Raptor fans have been teased. Teased with the possibility of a draft day steal. Taken 8th overall by Bryan Colangelo in the 2012 NBA Draft, Terrence Ross was a surprise pick to say the least (expected to go much later, possibly in the 15-25 range), and seemed like a low-risk attempt by Colangelo to strike big for a franchise with nothing to lose but another middle-of-the-pack draft pick. With a defensive-minded coach at the helm, the Raptors went for Ross, known as a defensive-minded, athletic shooting guard that had a sweet NBA stroke with a lot of potential. Yes, it surprised most Raptors fans. But the moment Terrence Ross arrived in Toronto, it was glaringly evident that he had talent written all over him.
Inserted into the starting lineup early into his career, Terrence Ross slid into the not-so-natural 3 slot for the Raptors alongside DeMar DeRozan to round out the starting wing throughout the post-Rudy portion of 2013-2014 season for the Raptors, the first meaningful campaign for the franchise since a playoff appearance 6 years prior. Playing on a defensive team that capitalized on the drive-and-kick spearheaded by Kyle Lowry’s penetration, Terrence Ross developed that NBA stroke into one of remarkable consistency. He also established himself as a solid lockdown one-on-one defender, tasked with guarding Deron Williams for a large part of the Raptors first-round playoff appearance that season against the Brooklyn Nets. Save for maybe that infamous playoff series, Terrence Ross had a mini-breakout type of year, establishing himself as the 3-and-D starter for a playoff team in only his sophomore year, averaging 12.2 points per game and shooting a reliable, steady 40.2% from three-point range as a starter that season. Somewhere, Bryan Colangelo was smiling. Or perhaps he was just really pissed off given that a starting lineup entirely acquired by him, was playoff-bound after his departure.
Yes, I’m going to post this video once again. The 51 point game is just too hard to ignore, and it was probably the pinnacle of anything we’ve experienced in terms of individual performances by a Raptor. The fact that this video is in colour reminds me that this was not as long ago as it feels.
Coming into this season though, after one of the landmark signings for the franchise in the defensive small-forward category in DeMarre Carroll, the Raptors shuffled things up. Terrence Ross came off of the bench and alongside Cory Joseph and Patrick Patterson, was tasked with anchoring the bench scoring and playing lockdown defense against the now-second best opposing shooting guard. In Terry Ross we trusted. Things seemed like they would click – Terrence Ross can now slide into a more natural spot, and assert himself on defense again. All he had to do was come off of the bench and add energy – seemed like he could do that, right?
Well, aside for maybe the first 4 games of the season, Terrence Ross did the opposite. He stunk it up. Terrence Ross became Terry Ross, and then TJ Ross.
And yet, here we are. The magic has returned. Terrence Ross, in the past 3 games, has averaged 15.3 points per game, shooting a blistering 46.2% from 3, and over 50% from the field overall. He’s playing visibly more actively on defense, and is shooting the ball with a level of confidence we haven’t seen at all this season. You just get that “feeling” that the ball is going in when he shoots. His legs look like they’re into his shot, his stroke is natural and nothing seems to be holding him up mentally any longer. Interestingly enough, the game where he first showed up after his contract signing in November was his first game as a starter this season. Playing against the Lakers in front of the ACC Crowd, Terrence Ross dropped a season high 22 points and went 4/6 from 3. After regressing to TJ Ross for the next 3 games, Terry Ross returned with great performances against Charlotte, Miami and last night against Dallas.
As a result of all this inconsistency, Raptor fans are now left in the dark, not at all knowing which alter-ego from the fourth-year pro we’ll see on a given night. When Terrence Ross is dropping threes and playing actively on defense, he looks like an amazing complementary piece to Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. And somehow, the aura he gives off when he struggles, is just plain bad. There’s no real reason to criticize a player just for this reason (unless he consistently played badly as well), but his body language in these games shows a clear lack of attention to detail and lack of focus during plays. Odd turnovers, missed open jumpers, and questionable long 2-pointers are all aspects we see, only to be followed up by a solid 3 games of three-point shooting and defense. The faithful Raptor fan is now either finding themselves loving to hate TJ on bad nights, or hating to love Terry on good nights.
I’ll make it very clear that I’m not “hating” on Terrence Ross, or giving him any undue criticism. He’s been very good for stretches of this season, but equally frustrating for the same reason, given the amount of promise we are teased with on a daily basis. With Terrence’s level of athleticism, shooting stroke and defensive abilities he proved earlier in his career, there should be no reason we shouldn’t expect this level of performance from him at least 3 out of every 4 nights. He’s not Andrea Bargnani – he can shoot, he can jump over you, and he can (save for the occasional brainfart) defend. If those were factors we could count on night in and night out – look out. Terry Ross can be the boss.
