2016-17 Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Terrence Ross

The Good and the Bad

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/11/2017.

When Terrence Ross first took the floor for the Orlando Magic, no one quite knew what to expect. Sure, Ross had the reputation as a sharpshooter who could get hot in a hurry and make 3-pointers quickly. Aside from the stray runout dunk, his offensive game was a bit of mystery to those who did not watch him enough.

Immediately, there was a noticeable different and an unexpected surprise in his play. Ross still had a way to go to get comfortable with his new role, but he could come off hard around a screen and rise and fire quickly.

Not only that, he was not some glorified chucker. He was not abusing this opportunity to expand his role and test what he could truly do when a full-time starter. He had a surprising passing ability, able to whip a pass quickly to the right man.

This time it was not his not getting involved. If anything the Magic did not involve him enough. He would play a strong three quarters and then seemingly disappear in the fourth as other players started to assert themselves.

The Magic do not have a clear pecking order and no player who seemingly can come to the forefront. Part of the Magic’s problems this year was knowing when to feature which player and for the young players to know when to assert themselves and when to fade into the background.

Ross was the new guy and did not always assert himself perhaps the way he should. He has never had to assert himself before. And so there was a learning curve for Ross.

His overall statistics were relatively flat in the long run. He averaged 12.5 points per game and shot 43.1 percent from the floor. He took more than 10 field goal attempts per game for the first time in his career.

More alarmingly, Ross shot just 34.1 percent from beyond the arc. It was hardly the efficient shooting performance the Magic expected when they acquired him. His shooting form did not come around in the way the team hoped.

On top of this, per 36 minutes, Ross did not really improve from his time in Toronto. If anything, he became less efficient playing more minutes and getting more opportunity.

Ross scored 14.4 points per 36 minutes with the Magic compared to 16.7 points per 36 minutes with the Raptors. Some decrease might have been expected thanks to the increased minutes and opportunity. His production became actual production rather than potential production.

Was it a matter of the team’s still rough construction or something larger about Ross?

That is the mystery for next season.