DeMarre Carroll: The good, the bad and the ugly

The ugly

While it may not be as ugly as the Timofey Mozgov contract, DeMarre Carroll’s four-year, $60 million deal was the worst thing going for him. Amidst all the injuries over the past two season, Carroll’s production, in combination with his contract, was the one thing Toronto was surely motivated to move.

And, boy, did Sean Marks get a haul for taking on Carroll. Not only did he get Carroll, who, when healthy, would provide some grit to this Brooklyn roster, but also snagged a lottery-protected 2018 first round pick and a 2018 second round pick.

Well done, Marks.

Carroll’s deal is ugly, yes. He’ll be paid $14.8 million in 2017-18 and $15.4 million in 2018-19. The great thing for the Nets? They won’t be competing for a top seed in the Eastern Conference.

These are the deals general manager Sean Marks, who started off with roughly $35 million in cap room this summer, has to make. It allows him to use the cap space strategically, while (potentially) getting young assets (draft picks) to build on for the future.

Next: 2017 NBA free agency tracker - Grades for every deal so far

In the short-term, Carroll’s contract will be sitting pretty next to Timofey Mozgov’s atop the Nets cap sheet, but don’t doubt Kenny Atkinson to do everything he can to get the most out of those guys, despite the desperation their respective GMs had when dealing for them over the past few weeks.