If the Orlando Magic make the playoffs (which still has a 40% chance of happening according to the inerrant basketball-reference), whoever’s the first seed should be very, very afraid of Terrence Ross. He’s turned it up a notch this season, becoming the premier off-the-bench shooter in the NBA. What if he has another notch to turn it up to? If he had a few games in a row at this heretofore unimagined, higher level of play, he could steal some games for the Magic.
Ross has underwhelmed for his entire career up until this year (ignoring his 51-point game). We don’t know what an activated Ross looks like in the playoffs. It could be very scary. Or it could be just a more chuckerific version of regular-season Ross, but I’m such a big fan of his that I choose to believe that he would maintain his efficiency even while taking a larger scoring load upon himself.
The only hope for the first seed in the East (which is obviously gonna be the Bucks, you think I’m gonna think differently?) is that the detrimental effect of Michael Carter-Williams cancels out the positive effect of Terrence Ross. MCW is an interesting (read: “bad”) choice for a team looking to make a playoff push, but he’s good news for any team that’s looking to win a playoff series against the Magic.