Atlanta Hawks: DeMarre Carroll’s Contract Should Be Priority
By Adam McGee
The Atlanta Hawks blew out the Nets on Friday night, in large part due to the outstanding play of DeMarre Carroll. Of all Atlanta’s starters, it’s Carroll who’s play normally goes unnoticed, but as he showed with his 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting at the Barclays Center, he’s a key cog of what the Hawks are trying to do.
Now into his second season with the Hawks, Carroll has enjoyed a successful spell in Atlanta. He established himself as an undisputed starter, and has really developed his game across the board under the stewardship of the Hawks’ coaching staff.
Although the Hawks are currently tearing along at 12-6, looking ahead at a season that’s currently filled with promise, just over the horizon lies a summer of big decisions.
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Most notably, the team’s All-Star forward, Paul Millsap, will become a free agent, but perhaps just as significant is the fact that Carroll, the man known as the Junkyard Dog, will also hit the open market.
Carroll’s combination of tight perimeter defense and accurate three-point shooting has become paramount to the way in which the Hawks play, and over the past 14 months or so, when Carroll has missed games Atlanta have really struggled.
The Hawks were able to battle against injuries to multiple players and still hold everything together last season, but when Carroll was out it often felt like the wheels came off.
Even this season, two of the Hawks worst defeats came when the 28-year-old was sidelined with injury, as the Hawks were destroyed on the perimeter by the Cavs, and embarrassed at home against the Lakers.
The Alabama native’s grit, determination and hustle are all a massive part of his game, but so is his talent which often goes under the radar. Carroll works harder than most players in the NBA to try to improve his game, and the results seem to pay off.
In his exit interview with Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution at the end of last season, Carroll came out with a couple of quotes that summed up what he’s all about. When asked about his plans for the summer, Carroll replied:
"They won’t let me play in summer league. I wanted to play summer league and work on my ball-handling but they won’t let me play."
There were other goals he set for the summer, though, and one in particular may actually be starting to come to fruition for him.
"I want to get my shot automatic, like Kyle Korver. I want to be the African-American Kyle Korver. … That is what I want people to know."
With Korver having taken his shooting to new heights again this year, Carroll is not quite there just yet, but he has shown an outstanding improvement in his shooting. The former Missouri Tiger is on track for a career high three-point percentage, averaging 42.3 percent, up from a solid mark of 36.2 last year.
With the arrival of Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore during the summer, Carroll entered into his contract year with greater competition than ever before. It seems like water off a duck’s back to the 28-year-old though, as he remains the team’s undisputed starting small forward.
On a deal worth just less than $2.5 million a year, Carroll has been a bargain signing for the Atlanta Hawks. With him still showing signs that there’s more to offer too, it would seem only right that the Hawks should reward his play with a new deal to keep him in Atlanta.