Justifying The Terrence Ross Selection By The Toronto Raptors
The feeling was mutual when the Toronto Raptors selected Jonas Valanciunas with the 5th overall pick in last years draft. Turns out, he was a great pick.
Terrence Ross is the newest member of the Raptors, and it’s hard to justify the pick at the moment. The guy was ranked in the teens by virtually every mock, so it appears that the Raptors made a bit of a reach. I’m definitely not the only one that was absolutely stunned by the pick. With big names such as Austin Rivers, Jeremy Lamb, and Andre Drummond on the board, how could Colangelo take the swingman from Washington?
However, something to note is the similarity of talent levels after the seventh pick. Unfortunately the Raptors lost a coin flip which could have landed them Harrison Barnes, however they missed him and took the guy that felt best fit with the team. The talent level between the 8th and 12th slot are similar as scouts have said the whole time, this is why Colangelo wanted to trade down.
Reports say that the Houston Rockets would have take Ross with the 12th pick, and evidently there was no option to trade down. Reality is, the only player I would have taken at this point over Ross is Andre Drummond. However, Colangelo said that he didn’t want to take on another project with Valanciunas coming in, and went with a player who can be immediately injected into the starting line-up.
Ross is extremely athletic, a dagger shooter, and a lock-down defender. The guy can actually do a bit of everything, however he hasn’t shown much ability in terms of creating offence for himself, and that was what the Raptors were hoping to pick up from this draft. Ross is a shooting guard, but has the length to play small forward.
The biggest problem with Ross could be because he played for a small school, while players such as Austin Rivers trump Ross in terms of pedigree and name, but not necessarily on skill.
At the end of the day, Colangelo went with the safer pick. Ross will be a solid starter, and should be an effective scorer. It’s unfortunate that losing one more game could have netted the Raptors Harrison Barnes, but at this point all we can do is wait and see. A lot of analysts do have Ross as a sleeper pick and he could end up being a stud, so don’t write off the kid before he’s played a game. Last year people started to warm up to the pick as they learned more about it, maybe this year, the case will be the same.
Check out some highlights–>
Follow me on Twitter @Thesachman
‘Like’ Raptors Cage on Facebook
Buy Toronto Raptors Tickets | Buy Toronto Raptors ApparelLeave a Rant
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!