Back in the 2015-2016 season, the Raptors were fresh off their second consecutive first round exit, this time a sweep by the Washington Wizards. In both playoff appearances, the Raptors had been the higher seed in the Eastern Conference, and in a seven game series, where usually the best team wins, upsets are rare. In both series, experience, and defence guarding wing players were to blame for the Raptors demise. Players like Bradley Beal and Joe Johnson, were two particular players who gave the Raptors trouble.
The Raptors needed a better option than Terrence Ross and James Johnson, with someone experienced, and could hold their own both offensively and defensively in big moments. When the Raptors were swept by the Wizards, it was the surprising 60-win Atlanta Hawks who would beat the Wizards in the next round, and move onto the Eastern Conference Finals. A large part of the Hawks success was because of the play of DeMarre Carroll, who was a tireless worker on defence, could hit threes at a good rate, but didn’t demand the ball to score. Carroll had an excellent contract year starting in 69 games, averaging 12.6 points, shooting 39% from three on 4.5 attempts per game, and ranked fourth in eFG% at 57%.
The Raptors and Carroll seemed like a perfect pairing, as Carroll fit a lot of the Raptors needs and could easily be plugged right into their system. At the time there were some who still questioned the Raptors ability to sign free agents, as their history in attracting top talent had been shaky. On July 9th 2015, the Raptors and Carroll agreed to a 4yr/$58mil contract, this was a great signing for Toronto, a sign that their winning ways would be able to attract/retain free agents. As the season began, Carroll was in and out of the lineup with knee problems. In January, after missing an extended period of time, Carroll’s health was called into question, and on January 6th 2016, he required knee surgery on a torn meniscus.
Carroll made a surprising comeback later in the year, but it wasn’t difficult to tell that Carroll wasn’t performing to his norm as the time he’d spent off the court and knee pain was still plaguing him. This was worrisome for the Raptors, as Carroll’s had a history of knee problems. Back in 2007, Carroll was picking up some of his college teammates from a nightclub in Colombia Missouri. When he arrived, his teammates were starting to get into an altercation. When Carroll was trying to pull his teammates away, he was shot in the ankle. That season Carroll admits he rushed back, and suffered other injuries because of it. As Carroll explains in an interview with Bleacher Report,
“The incident also made me realize that you’ve got to take your time with serious injuries, because if you come back too soon, you’ll hurt another part of your body. I did that after the shooting, and I had bad knees my whole junior season in 2007-08 because my injured leg was also putting more weight on my other knee. I thought I could’ve left for the NBA draft after my junior year, but not with the way my knees were feeling.”
With a bad season passed him, Raptors fans were hoping to get a huge bounce back year out of Carroll, and things didn’t start out pretty. Granted,both these sample sizes are small, but the splits are drastic enough that there’s an obvious pattern here. In his first 9 games of the season, Carroll was averaging 7.2 points per game, pulling in 4 rebounds, and getting less than one assist per game. In his 25.2 minutes per game, he was shooting an ugly 36% from the field on 6.7 attempts 4 of which were coming from three, 30% from three, and 71% from the line.
It really didn’t seem like Carroll had fully recovered from his knee injury from a season before, and was still playing his way back into game shape, not able to play in the second game of back to backs. Not only was Carroll just struggling offensively, some of these three point attempts were wide open air balls, his dribble moves to the basket would end with him getting stuck and passing back out, wasting valuable shot clock time. Defensively, Carroll looked a step slow as well, which lead to him not playing very important minutes down the stretch of games.
Even though it was early, people were panicking and thinking that this was starting to look like a really bad free agent signing. Since that time, it seems as though Carroll who is described as a resilient person has slowly played his way back into game shape. In the seven games since his rough start, he’s averaging 14.1 points on more than three more shot attempts per game than his slump, he’s making great back door cuts scoring down low while the defenders fall asleep, shooting 52% from the field overall, and hitting his three at 43% on 5.6 attempts per game. He also looks like he’s getting back to the stellar defensive play he’s known for, and seeing more crunch time minutes as a result.
The backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are always going to have the highest usage rates on the team. Having a very capable “three-and-D” player in Carroll, who doesn’t need the ball in his hands a ton to score, makes smart decision on offence, and can shut down scoring wings, is something of a must for the Raptors starting lineup.
Carroll is still trying to get back to 100% healthy, but as he inches closer and closer his play looks truly inspiring. While this may be a small sample size, just by watching Carroll you can tell things are starting to click for him. While it’s easy to panic at ugly small sample sizes, it’s also nice to be encouraged when players bounce back from poor play. Carroll and the Raptors still seem like that perfect pairing people thought they were during that 2015 offseason. Carroll is finally starting to look stronger every game, it might be a blessing that the Raptors have him for two more years.
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