DeMarre Carroll's quiet return to Atlanta ends with Raptors win
ATLANTA — DeMarre Carroll's new locker at Philips Arena didn't quite fit him. It was squeezed into the visitors' locker room to the left of DeMar DeRozan and a melting bucket of ice, while the belongings of new Hawks wing Tim Hardaway Jr. occupied his former spot down the hall.
Carroll's return to Atlanta was a quiet one. His Toronto Raptors team pulled off a surprising second-half comeback to down the roller-coaster Atlanta Hawks 96-86 on Wednesday night, but the 6-foot-8 wing, who spent the previous two seasons in a Hawks uniform, was a relative non-factor. He scored five points on eight shots while logging six boards and three steals. He was a necessary component of the Raptors' stingy defense; however, the highlight of his night, other than the final score, was a video tribute the Hawks ran to commemorate his contributions to the franchise.
Carroll said he watched the tribute on the scoreboard from the Raptors huddle.
"Emotions ran high," Carroll said. "It was a great feeling just to be back out there, you know, see some of the old faces."
The Hawks' 60-win season and run to the Eastern Conference Finals would not have been possible without Carroll's rapid development in Atlanta.
The Missouri product developed from an NBA journeyman and defensive spark plug to a true two-way player capable of punishing opposing defenders that played off him or cheated into passing lanes. Outside of defending the opposition's best wing on a nightly basis, he provided balance and spacing to an offensive system that demands it. Carroll posted career highs with 13.1 points per game on 60.3 percent true shooting — and then he upped the ante by becoming Atlanta's most efficient offensive option during the playoffs.
"Basically they gave me an opportunity," Caroll said of the Hawks, "the opportunity to be successful and be successful at a high level."
Added Paul Millsap: "He brought it every single game, left it all on the court."
His free-agent stock, as a result, skyrocketed.
Toronto knew what it wanted from the jump this summer. On the first night of free agency, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey boarded a flight from Seattle to meet with Carroll for an in-home visit. Casey and Carroll's uncle, Arkansas coach Mike Anderson, have known each other for years, dating back to Casey's days on the recruiting trail for Kentucky in the mid-1980s. There was a comfort level, even a mutual admiration, there.
Once the Hawks elected to ink Millsap, Carroll's close friend dating back to their Utah Jazz days, to a max deal, Carroll quickly signed the most lucrative contract of his career, a four-year, $60 million security blanket to take his talents north of the border.
"He's brought a defensive toughness, an air of toughness. A defensive presence that we needed at that position to guard that position. DeMar DeRozan and Terrence Ross now don't have to guard a bigger, stronger 3-man. ... The ultimate teammate. He's a leader by example and a great story. That's the first thing I told him when I visited him and when signed: 'I love your story.' The fact of where he's come from and what he's made himself into, he's a self-made NBA player."
It's been an up-and-down start as Carroll adjusts to a new system. He's mixed in five games of 17 or more points, but his offensive efficiency (101 points per 100 possessions) is far below last year's pace when he functioned as a safety net for Atlanta's other four starters. As he's taken on the more central role demanded of a $60 million signing, his usage rate has hit a career high. His shooting percentages simply need to catch up.
Part of the issue, according to Carroll and Raptors coach Dwane Casey, is terminology. Different teams speak different basketball languages. Learning the new system — and then converting those principles into habit — takes time.
"That's the hardest part," Carroll said of learning the new terminology. "A lot of that gets swept under the rug going from one team to another: You understand one system to the fullest and then you've gotta go to another. That's been the most challenging part. But it's been good. Coach (Casey) has been really working with me, playing the 3 and the 4, whatever he needs me to play."
Injuries have also undercut the Raptors' 11-7 record as well. Carroll missed three November games with a heel issue. Starting center Jonas Valanciunas is expected to miss significant time with a hand injury, leaving Toronto perimeter-heavy for the immediate future. The fact that the Raptors find themselves in early contention for a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference is a credit to a patchwork effort, the group's collective defense-first mentality and point guard Kyle Lowry's occasional dominance.
The Hawks' transition away from Carroll has not been seamless, either. A season removed from the sixth-most efficient defense in the NBA, the Hawks are hovering at league average. The wing rotation has been less defined as Thabo Sefolosha comes back from offseason surgery, Kent Bazemore has dealt with an ankle injury and Justin Holiday, Lamar Patterson and Hardaway Jr. have pushed for minutes. Atlanta has not won consecutive games since Nov. 7.
Carroll's departure was a matter of financial restrictions — it was either Millsap, who has played at an All-NBA level this season, or Carroll; the choice was simple — but both parties walked away with positives. The Hawks launched themselves back into the Eastern Conference contention and found their low-cost, 3-and-D wing blueprint that they've since tried to replicate by bringing in the likes of Bazemore and Holiday.
On the other hand, Carroll improved by leaps and bounds while working with the Hawks coaching staff, then carried his experiences with him to Toronto.
“I think the biggest thing I’ll take is the trials and tribulations it took for us to be successful. We went through a lot of obstacles," Carroll said. "A lot of people forget, my first year here we were (38-44) or something. We lost like 18 in a row or something like that. Then the next year, all of that got swept under the rug when you win 60 games.
"That's one of things I always tell the team I'm with right now: 'It's a process, man.' It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. You've got to take your time and get better. And winning solves everything."
