Now THIS is how you take your individual frustrations out on social media, James Johnson. (I kid, I hope the Johnson truthers don’t come after me in the comments.)
Apparently upset with his 1-of-8 performance from the field on Saturday, Toronto Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll said he sucks in an Instagram post Saturday night. In the same breath, he praised the team’s fighting spirit in a narrow team win.
(Note: He originally had the caption “GREAT TEAM WIN!! We Fought Hard!!! I Suck but great thing about NBA.. It’s a TEAM Sport!!😁😁💯💯 #Blessed #jyd2point0 #Teamcarroll #wethenorth #GrindDaily” but changed it to “GREAT TEAM WIN!! We Fought Hard!!! I Suck (TONIGHT) but great thing about NBA.. It’s a TEAM Sport!!😁😁💯💯 #Blessed #jyd2point0 #Teamcarroll #wethenorth #GrindDaily”)
Carroll being disappointed in his own play is entirely justified. He missed several clean looks Saturday, his attacks against closeouts haven’t been succeeding all season, and before Wednesday’s game (I haven’t had access to the data since), he was in the 19th percentile for points per-possession on cuts, usually a forte of his. He shot 4-of-11 on Wednesday, too, and he’s now at 38.3 percent from the floor. Even his defense was found a little wanting against the Wizards, though, with Bradley Beal having a strong performance against Carroll. The Raptors eventually went small and Cory Joseph drew some Beal duty in support.
For the most part, he’s made up for that slump on the defensive end, and tonight was a rare blip to the contrary. He did as good a job as could be expected on LeBron James and he’s been the team’s best perimeter defender, bar none, when in the lineup. He’s also hitting 37.1 percent of his threes despite a cold start to the season and the off-night Saturday.
Really, Carroll doesn’t have a lot to feel badly about. The Raptors are winners of four in a row, and he’s been knocking down triples and defending at a top-tier level on most nights. All the respect in the world for eschewing complacency, though.
And don’t worry, his fans made him feel better!
