Toronto Raptors: Examining Terrence Ross’ Uneven Season

It’s been yet another up-and-down season for Terrence Ross.  Can he eventually become the reliable shooter off the bench that the Toronto Raptors expect him to be?

We’ve been through this story many times before it seems.

Throughout his four-year career, Terrence Ross has shown many flashes (his 51-point game quickly comes to mind) and the Toronto Raptors have given him plenty of opportunities in hopes that he could become more than a streaky scorer off the bench.

But whether it’s been a bit of bad luck, a lack of consistency or possibly too high of expectations placed on him, Ross still remains that streaky scoring reserve for the Raptors and unfortunately, there are no signs of that changing anytime soon.

The beginning of this season couldn’t have gotten off on a worse note for Ross.  He shot a shaky 33 percent from the field and an abysmal 29 percent from three-point range on only 5.5 points per game (per NBA.com.stats).

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However, Ross rebounded quite nicely in the month of December, where he put up 10.8 points per game and even led the team in three-point percentage by shooting 42 percent.

Now, Ross’ offensive production has quickly gone cold in the month of January and to make matters worse, the Raptors find themselves playing a little short-handed due to forward DeMarre Carroll being out indefinitely after undergoing surgery on his right knee.

Of course, some of that is due to the finely tuned rotation that head coach Dwane Casey employs, but with Ross’ shooting quickly going cold again, the Raptors are in a peculiar spot given how they have one of the least productive benches in the league.

Not only that, but given the Raptors’ place in the Eastern Conference standings (currently three and a half games back of Cleveland), this all makes for an intriguing month ahead if the team decides to make any moves before the trade deadline.

In an excellent profile on the team published this week written by the always great Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri touched on the team’s abundance of assets and whether or not they could play a factor in a possible deal this coming deadline:

"Toronto could flip some of that for help on the wing, or an upgrade at power forward — the biggest long-term hole on the roster. “We already have so many young players,” Ujiri said. “And those extra picks over the next two years — we can’t use all those picks. So [a trade] is always something you’re looking at.”"

That necessarily doesn’t put Ross’ status on the team in jeopardy any time soon, given he just signed his rookie-scale extension this past October, but it certainly could put Ross’ place on the team in question if the team decided to make a move for a forward/wing.

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As stated in almost anything written on the Raptors this year, it’s no secret they want to become a perennial contender in the league.

Now in a year where no one but the Cavaliers are asserting themselves in the Eastern Conference, it almost seems like it’s now or never for the Raptors to make a push into the conversation of contenders.

As for Ross, he still has plenty of time to change his story.

He’s just about to turn 25 and if he could eventually break through his inconsistent label, he’d be a nice sixth-man/first wing off the bench for the Raptors.

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However, the expectation of him achieving that feat is still very much up in the air and Ross needs to turn things around fast if he still expects to be the first wing off the bench for the Raptors down the road.