Toronto Raptors: Grading The Offseason

Every (Junkyard) Dog Has His (Pay)day

Is it possible to overpay a player and it still be a good move? Because that’s basically happened when the Toronto Raptors jumped the market and offered DeMarre Carroll a four-year, $60 million contract to steal him away from the Atlanta Hawks this summer. Basically, the “Junkyard Dog” got PAID.

The only member of Atlanta’s starting five to miss out on the All-Star Game last year, Carroll became the Hawks’ most important player in the playoffs when Paul Millsap‘s shoulder held him back, Kyle Korver‘s shot vanished and the rest of the team underperformed. One of the better 3-and-D players in the league, Carroll has a lot to offer Toronto.

Last season in Atlanta, Carroll averaged 12.6 points per game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from three-point range — all career highs. He was taking 4.3 three-pointers per game and addresses a major area of need for the Raptors at small forward, especially for a team that wants to improve defensively after being the league’s 23rd ranked defense last season.

At age 29, this is a significant overpay for a player who doesn’t have a lot of room left for individual improvement. But if the goal of the summer was to strengthen the team’s weaker areas to run it back in 2015-16, they accomplished that by bringing in Carroll. The question now will be whether that intentional overpay was worth it, since the Raptors still don’t have a star to get them to the next level despite paying Carroll like one.

Grade: B-

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