Terrence Ross’ multi-year extension has been a hot topic amongst the Toronto Raptors’ fan base pretty much from the second the deal was first reported.
And for good reason.
Toronto invested long-term into what Ross could become, despite evidence throughout his career that he’s only a middling NBA player at best – for his career he’s averaging 8.9 points per game on 41.2 per cent shooting.
But Masai Ujiri and the Raptors gave him the big extension anyway, and in the immediate aftermath of the deal, Ross may be playing the worst basketball of his short NBA career.
In 16 games since he first signed the extension, Ross has had to miss six with a thumb injury and has put up just 3.3 points per game on a paltry 25.5 per cent shooting.
Despite these struggles, however, Toronto’s general manager still sees a lot of value in the deal he handed out to the 24-year-old.
“When you do them [contracts] at first, it doesn’t look good, players react a little bit, there’s anxiety and they have to settle down a little bit,” Ujiri told Bob McCown and Ken Reid on Sportsnet 590 the FAN’s Prime Time Sports Thursday.
“When we did [the] Jonas [Valanciunas deal] everybody said, ‘Why are you signing Jonas for that money. Why don’t you wait until the end?’ Well, if we waited until the end, Jonas costs more money. When we signed Cory Joseph everyone was like, ‘What? Third point guard? Why? Is he really worth that?’
“Right or wrong, [the Ross deal] could be a bad contract, we’re not going to get every single one right, but all I’m saying is these are sometimes the risks we have to take, this is sometimes the vision we have to have. That’s why we’re in the place to do this job.”
In the off-season Ujiri also signed Valanciunas to a big multi-year extension, and the Joseph deal was picked a part a bit, mostly because the Canadian point guard hadn’t conceivably played as much to justify the price tag.
Both deals are looking good for the Raptors and Ujiri thinks the same can be said of Ross, if he can perfect his outside stroke.
“We pegged him, at worst, to be a shooter in the NBA, and he’s a top-flight shooter – he’s got that skill,” Ujiri said. “When he settles down and if that’s the only thing he does, he’s going to be a shooter.
“If I remember right, when guys like J.J. Redick and Kyle Korver, those kind of guys came in the league it was the same thing. They’ve been traded tons of times … then they settled down and became the unbelievable role players that they are, which is shooting and shooting and shooting. And it’s come to a point in the game where it’s something you need.”
Ujiri isn’t wrong in saying Ross has potential to become a deadeye marksman from deep. He’s a very respectable 37 per cent shooter from distance for his career, but has struggled mightily this season, connecting on only 28.6 per cent of his attempts.
More so than his shot, however, Ujiri believes in Ross because he seems him as something of a winner.
“If you look at it, we were out of the playoffs [for five seasons]. All of a sudden the last two years we did. He was a starter on those teams. We can say all we want, Terrence Ross was a starter on a team with 48 wins and 49 wins. That’s kind of what brought our team alive and what has brought our progress, he’s part of it in some kind of way.”
You can listen to the full interview here.
