Terrence Ross
RETIRED

Player Facts

Height: 6'6"
Weight: 206lbs.

Wingspan: 6'7.25"

Date of Birth: Feb. 5, 1991
College Experience: Washington (2 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 9
Physical Strength: 6
Positional Size: 8
Positional Wingspan: 7
Paint Scoring: 5
Midrange Scoring: 6
Three-Point Scoring: 7
Dribbling: 6
Passing: 3
Perimeter Defense: 3
Interior Defense: 2
Rebounding: 4

Embed from Getty Images

JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Shooting Off Movement

> Off-Ball Sniping

> Playing Off of Others

> Pull-Up Shooting

> Two-Point Scoring

> Defensive Struggles

> Weak Defensive Playmaking

> Passing & Efficiency Concerns

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of Smart Highlights & NF Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

The 6'6" Portland native came into the league as an explosive athlete and an unabashed 3pt shooter. Ross has since developed some supplementary parts of his offensive game. Unfortunately, many of the playmaking and defense-based concerns that plagued him early on still persist today.

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Shooting Off Movement

What Terrence has always been able to do is can catch-and-shoot jimmies. He separates himself by being a dynamic shooter running off pindowns and staggers. The intuitive Ross has a natural feel, like knowing when to fade to the deep corner against defenders shooting the gap for example.

Ross' 6'6" frame allows for a high release point. What helps here too is the fact that he consistently gets his legs fully engaged for high elevating jumpers. At that point, few defenders have the chance to get a piece of the ball.

Another differentiator for the swingman is his raised comfort level shooting off movement. As a threatening catch-and-shoot option, he is game-planned for as an off-ball player.

He has to adjust and counter the defensive attention with smart movement and off-ball screen usage. He actually led the entire league in points off screens in 2019-2020 (then sixth in 2020-2021, then top-25 in 2021-2022 despite less play time).

Luckily for Ross, he is a natural at balancing himself on the shot. Even after sprinting to get open, he can stop on a dime and raise. Terrence's accuracy is maintained even as he rotates in-air to align himself to the basket.

Off-Ball Sniping

In his sophomore NBA campaign, he was already swishing threes at a high clip. 2013-2014 had him connect on 41.8% of his catch-and-shoot treys. It was far from a small sample size either, taking 349 of these shots across his 81 games logged.

Looking so far back helps show how Ross has always been a legitimate three-point threat. More recently, he's found himself playing off of Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac, Cole Anthony, and others in Orlando. 2019-2020 still had him with the fifth-most catch-and-shoot buckets in the Association.

The percentages from downtown are not always there for T-Ross. For instance, he shot only 35.1% then 33.7% from deep in 2019-2020 then 2020-2021. However, the difficulty on these shots is high, shooting off of movement a lot rather than being a basic standstill shooter like a P.J. Tucker.

Playing Off of Others

He also plays off his teammates by being a solid cutter. 2020-2021 had him in the 81st percentile scoring on his cuts. The major value-add here is his lob-catching ability, making him a more dynamic cutter on the back-end than shooters like Joe Harris.

Ross and specifically Nikola Vucevic had formed a great DHO pairing. This tandem played off each other well, with various wrinkles and counters available. Terrence's shooting stroke in general has defenders chasing feverishly to get over top which opens up other opportunities.

In 2019-2020 he passed to Vucevic 149 times and received a delivery from the pivot 120 times. Largely through this tandem, T-Ross was a high-level handoff scorer that year.

He ended up in the 87th percentile with more buckets in 2019-2020 than Luka Doncic, Damian Lillard, and Jayson Tatum. More recently, he's been working more with bigs like Wendell Carter Jr.

Pull-Up Shooting

A noticeable skill enhancement of Ross' is his pull-up shooting. To start, he took just a combined 151 off-the-bounce triples from 2013-2014 to 2015-2016. 2018-2019 alone included a swelled 172 tally while swishing 38.2% of them.

The upped familiarity as a multi-dribble distance shooter has unlocked an ability to handle in pick-and-rolls.

The low-turnover Ross initiated 215 screen-and-roll actions in 2019-2020, leading to 202 Ross points. His pull-up ability, coupled with explosiveness to get into the lane, produced a respectable 0.94 points per play mark.

Two-Point Scoring

As alluded to, Terrence uses ball screens to get into two-point range as well. He springs into the midrange where he exhibits good touch and balance. 2018-2019 had him at a 43.5% two-point jumper mark, more efficient than Bradley Beal and Paul George.

Ross of course gets to the basket as well, if a little infrequent for his size. He finishes fine there though with that insane bounce alongside some craft. The Washington product has made at least 64% of his shots at the rim each season from 2015-2016 to 2020-2021.

That great athletic ability translates beautifully to the open court. He catches lobs like a big man or will tomahawk one on his own accord. His 137 fast break points beat out Jamal Murray, Kemba Walker, and the sharpshooting Duncan Robinson (2019-2020).

WEAKNESSES

Defensive Struggles

Terrence is not out there for his defense. He looks the part of a wing stopper based on his measurements but folds against talented scorers. He's far more quick than he is strong, forcing the hand of his coaching staff to place him on smaller guards or hide him altogether.

He can fare decently against guards in an isolation scenario. Unfortunately though, wings constantly get the best of him. Technique-wise, he could play more with his feet fist rather than his hands and perhaps he just needs to get stronger.

2018-2019 saw him check forwards on 40.6% of his defensive possessions. They shot a well-above-average 48.7% from the floor against Terrence. 2019-2020 was even worse for Ross in this department – his forward opponents shot a whopping 54.4% from the field.

Weak Defensive Playmaking

Ross barely collects the defensive counting stats that add value as a defender. He's not a huge steals, deflections, or blocks guy despite upper-tier athletic capabilities. His short-ish length on the wing (shade over 6'7" wingspan) may be part of the problem but it should not preclude him from being at least average here.

Continuing with his team defense, his positioning and awareness level on the court could be better. He's vulnerable to backdoor cuts for instance. Moreover, he does not always take the optimal route as he chases shooters around.

The former Husky should be a much better rebounder with his tools. His first and second jumps are elite-level in terms of quickness and max elevation. However, he rarely looks to mix it up inside and only posted 0.5 contested boards per contest (2019-2020).

Passing & Efficiency Concerns

On the offensive end, his playmaking fails to stack up. Despite playing the 2/3 with the size to see over people, he is ineffectual at making others better. The sometimes-selfish Ross has a criminally low assist rate and generated merely 3.0 points per game for teammates in 2019-2020.

On a personal scoring level, shot selection is a weak point. Firstly, he struggles to reign it in from deep and will chuck up some bad shots. Additionally, he could be more selective inside the arc, particularly on floaters/runners.

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Beacon Bacon

Terrence took home the top prize in the 2013 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest as a Toronto Raptor