On a Raptors team full of scapegoats last year, Terrence Ross and his game may have brayed the loudest.
The eighth-overall pick in 2012 entered his third NBA season regarded as a breakout candidate. Ross' 2012-13 regular season, during which he drained four of every ten threes he hoisted and dropped 51 one January night, provided legitimate reason for optimism. Players who can drain a triple on one possession then unleash a poster dunk the next time down the floor are hard to find - and Ross looked like that kind of player. You couldn't have blamed a beleaguered Raptors fan for asking the question: could this hyper-athletic, largely unheralded college player be an unexpected franchise-altering star?