Preaching Patience With DeMarre Carroll
After going through yet another setback, all is not lost as there’s still hope for Toronto Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll to turn his tough season around.
It’s safe to say that this hasn’t been the season that everyone expected for DeMarre Carroll.
After signing with the Toronto Raptors last summer following his emergence as a valuable “three & D” player with the Atlanta Hawks, injuries have plagued him almost since the beginning of the season and his numbers have subsequently suffered.
While the team has weathered the storm without him and other players step up in Carroll’s absence, things started looking up once Carroll recently returned to action after being out with a bruised right knee for about three weeks.
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Unfortunately, that hope has quickly diminished as the team announced Wednesday that Carroll would be undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and is out indefinitely, as no timetable was given on when he could make his return.
Yes, it’s just another stunning blow in what was already a disappointing season for Carroll. However, while some will already stamp this a lost season for Carroll with the way it’s shaping up to be, there’s still a silver lining to be had in all of this.
It was time for Carroll to finally get healthy.
Going back to the end of last season and in the playoffs when Carroll was a member of the Atlanta Hawks, he suffered a pretty nasty knee sprain in the Eastern Conference Finals series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Yet, as Carroll is who he is, he returned to action in the following game and continued to clearly play in less than full strength until the Hawks were eventually shut out by the Cavs.
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Although he eventually got back to full strength last offseason, that same drive and toughness is exactly the same reason why Carroll chose the same path of trying to ride it out/play through the pain but it unfortunately it got to this point for him and the team.
Now, it’s clearly not an easy choice for any player to miss time in order to get healthy, especially when you’re a player on a contending team like the Raptors are right now.
Whether we may think it’s right or wrong, players ultimately want to win and most, if not all of them, are willing to play through all sorts of pain in order to help make that happen.
However, there’s always the long view when looking at these sort of situations and in this particular case with the Raptors, the ultimate objective of this season is to make a deep playoff run.
Therefore, it’s obviously more important for Carroll to get back to full strength now in order for the team to boost their chances of trying to make a deep playoff run a reality.
It’ll be interesting to see whether this new development impacts what the team may do at the trade deadline, but the team has already shown earlier this season that they’re willing to carry on (“next man up,” if you will) in spite of what injury problems may come their way.
As for Carroll, it’s undoubtedly been a trying first season in Toronto and going through another setback clearly doesn’t help in trying to turn that around.
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Nonetheless, there’s a bigger picture here and getting healthy right now still gives Carroll time to make an impact on the team, even though it may be later than we all expected.