The Toronto Raptors have let The Junkyard Dog out of his cage.
DeMarre Carroll will return from a three-game absence on Friday against the New Orlenans Pelicans, starting at small forward.
Considered day-to-day with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, Carroll’s presence in the lineup is somewhat of a surprise. The injury requires ample rest before a return to action, lest the injury linger or flare back up later on, and the Pelicans – without Anthony Davis and four others – seemed a good opportunity to get him an additional day of rest before a daunting west-coast road-trip. He doesn’t seem the type to take sitting particularly well, so credit the team for giving him a week’s worth of rest amid a losing streak and with another injury on the wing.
Speaking with media before Friday’s game, Carroll confirmed that if it were up to him, he would have been playing. The team’s coaches, however, convinced him otherwise, with a three-game absence always roughly the plan. He also confirmed that he didn’t tell anyone about the injury but “they kind of figured out.” Assistant coach Jerry Stackhouse, who had plantar fascists in the past, helped Carroll with how best to rehab the injury. (Dap to Josh Lewenberg and Ryan Wolstat for these paraphrased Carroll quotes.)
Carroll has been dealing with soreness in the foot for over two weeks now, with head coach Dwane Casey suggesting an early-November change in shoes (Carroll left Nike to sign with adidas) coincided with the issue getting worse. That shouldn’t be taken as meaning the shoe caused the plantar fasciitis, it could just be coincidence. The hope is surely that the inflammation in the tendons of the foot is entirely behind him, as the team was unlikely to let him try to play at anything less than 100 percent.
James Johnson was starting in Carroll’s stead and acquitted himself well. After stumbling in the second half of his first start, Johnson mostly ironed out the overaggressiveness with the ball and his occasional lapses off the ball on the defensive end. Norman Powell saw expanded run Wednesday and performed in an encouraging fashion, using his athleticism and aggression to pressure ball-handlers and push the game in transition. Both players stand to see less run again Friday – Johnson may have played his way back into a bench role – and Anthony Bennett will probably be relegated back to third-string power forward duty.
| MPG | w/ Carroll | w/o Carroll |
| Johnson | 4.3 | 28.3 |
| Powell | 2.5 | 10.3 |
| Bennett | 3.7 | 10.3 |
Carroll’s return is not only a boost to the team’s perimeter defense but should also help allay the team’s early shooting struggles. He was averaging 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.3 steals in 35.7 minutes before his injury, albeit those offensive numbers came with poor efficiency metrics and a 33.3-percent mark from long-range that’s below his normal standard.
With the news that Carroll is back and Davis is out, the Raptors have moved from nine-point favorites to 10-point favorites.
Be sure to use the Gameday post for live discussion during the game.
