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Magic’s Ross shrugs off rumors at trade deadline
7 p.m. Thursday, FS-FLA
Terrence Ross not thinking about trade rumors.
OKLAHAOMA CITY, Okla. — Orlando Magic swingman Terrence Ross doesn’t let trade rumors or the possibility of changing teams cloud his approach or get in the way of his preparation.
To him, it’s simply all a part of being in the NBA.
“Either way you’ve got to play,” he said Tuesday during the team’s shootaround at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. “Whether you’re get traded, [or] whether you’re still here, you’ve got to get ready for that game that night. As long as you’re ready to play and you stay ready, you’re going to do well.”
Ross, who turned 28 on Tuesday, has done that for the Magic this season, averaging a career-high 14.1 points a game as he continues to play as one of the top sixth men in the NBA. Ross is shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from the 3-point line and leads the team in 3-pointers made (129) and attempted (342). He’s 12th in the NBA in 3-pointers made through Tuesday’s games.
Ross, who scored 26 points in Tuesday’s 132-122 loss to the Thunder, has playoff experience from his time with the Raptors. Ross also is in the final year of his contract, so if the Magic don’t trade him they could still lose him to another team via free agency.
Rumors and speculation run rampant on the Internet and there has been no shortage of reports linking Ross to the trade market this season. For their part, the Magic have kept their trade intentions close to the vest.
There’s little question Ross would improve a team’s roster. He’s a talented perimeter shooter who doesn’t need much space to get off a shot, and has shown the kind of scoring ability that can carry a team in stretches of a game.
So with Thursday’s 3 p.m. NBA trade deadline approaching, Ross knows he could find himself suiting up for a new team. Or he might not go anywhere and would continue to provide the Magic with a valuable source of offense off the bench. He said it comes down to going out on the floor and performing, no matter what uniform you put on.
“As players you don’t have any say-so, so there’s no point in like stressing about it,” he said. “You’re going to get an opportunity to play. You’re going to have to go out there and do what you do regardless because whether you get traded or not, you’re on that team to do a specific job. Regardless of if you get traded to a team that needs what you do or if you stay with the team that needs what you do, you’ve got to do it at the end of the day. That’s what it’s all about.”
Ross knows what that’s like. He was drafted in the first round by Toronto in 2012. Five years later, he was traded from the Raptors to the Magic on Feb. 14, 2017, in a deal that sent Serge Ibaka to Toronto.
“It was an experience. It was cool. It was my first time being traded,” Ross said. “It’s kind of out of your hands at that point, so you’ve just got to go with the flow.”
Magic power forward Aaron Gordon said he “checks with Twitter a ton” this time of the year to keep tabs on the transactions. He said the trade deadline provides another level of engagement for the NBA.
“It’s just great for the league. It’s entertaining,” he said on Monday. “And it’s really great for some of the players in the trades. You’re really happy for some of the guys who get traded because they’ll be in a better spot. You know, change is good.”
Ross said his easy-going personality helped him deal with the trade, and he continues to lean on the perspective he gained from it.
“When you’re somewhere for so long, you get attached to people. You create relationships and all that, but that’s kind of part of the league,” he said. “You can’t look at it as like, ‘Oh, I’m losing something.’ You’ve got to look at it as like, ‘I’ve got another opportunity to make more relationships and start a new experience,’ and enjoy that. You’ve got to look at it positively.”