Terrence Ross Continues to Disappoint
At the start of this season, Toronto Raptors’ head coach Dwane Casey and GM Masai Ujiri had high hopes for Terrence Ross. Going into his third season in the NBA, basketball pundits and fans alike expected Ross to take the leap into becoming a valuable starter. He was regarded as the team’s best potential 3-and-D player because of his occasional prowess from three-point land, his speed and his athleticism. 41 games into this season, Ross’ biggest achievement has been confusing the entire basketball world.
Is he a future wash-out? Is his amazing potential still untapped? Does he need more time? Less time? No one has a clear answer. The reason Ross is talked about so often is his ability to produce spurts of brilliance. He has the potential to record highlight-reel dunks every time he gets the ball in his hands. He also occasionally plays elite-level defence on strong small forwards. He can takeover games in a heartbeat, but can go ice cold just as quickly.
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His stats don’t tell the whole story, but they share a picture of why he has been a confusing disappointment so far this season. Simply put, it’s hard to tell if Ross has improved at all from his sophomore season. If he has, it isn’t translating to the scoreboard.
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/19/2015.
Let’s first look at his point production. Ross earns almost an identical amount of points per game as he did last season, shooting a slightly worse field goal percentage. His three-point shooting has regressed, something that coach Casey must be worried about. So much of his offensive upside hinges on his ability to knock down threes, so without that shot, he is extremely limited. The one area he has significantly improved on is shooting from the charity stripe. If he can be convinced to drive hard to the hoop more often, his free throw ability will come in handy.
Numbers aside, it appears that a big part of Ross’ struggles are mental. He often looks timid, lost and disengaged. He almost always refuses to drive to the hoop with the ball, instead settling for contested jumpers. He shows a fundamental lack of patience offensively, looking to shoot the ball just about as soon as he gets it. There is a reason Ross averages less than an assist per game this season: he almost always choses to shoot instead of looking for better shots for his teammates.
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He seems to jump into cold spells easily, losing his shot for full games if he misses his first look. He will need to learn to stay committed to a game through good and bad. This is an exercise in maturity, which will be required if Ross wants to learn how to win. The best players in this league help their teammates as much as possible when they don’t play particularly well. Ross needs to adopt this mentality.
The potential is there, but the Raptors need to start seeing results soon. A solid goal for Ross would be to get up to 13 points per game and a three-point field goal percentage of 42% by the end of the season. If he can’t reach those goals, the Raptors should look for a new home for the eighth pick from the 2012 NBA draft.