San Antonio Spurs: DeMarre Carroll addition could be better than advertised

Does Carroll move the needle for the Spurs’ aspirations?

For all that Carroll is able to do (or not do) on and off the court, you’d have to imagine his off-court and locker room leadership played a role in the connection. From the standpoint of the win-loss record, there seems to be a correlation between what Carroll’s internal impact means to a team.

Take, for example, Carroll’s first season as a swingman for the Memphis Grizzlies. Long before the days of the Grit-N-Grind regime, the Grizzlies faltered to a 24-58 record. They selected Carroll, saw development from their other young talent, and turned that into a 16-win turnaround in 2009-10.

The correlation loses ground in 2010-11 and 2011-12, as Carroll spent time in the D-League. Though, with improved touch on his 3-point shot from then on (28.0 percent from 2008-09 to 2011-12 vs. 36.1 percent since then), Carroll stamped himself a ticket back into the NBA, helping the Jazz maintain a win percentage above .500 in 2012-13.

Then, there’s 2013-14, where Carroll left Utah, joining a 38-win Hawks and helping transform them into a 60-win championship contender. His impact here was severely understated; he was the only Hawks starter not named to the 2015 All-Star Team, though he was named Eastern Conference co-Player of the Month, generated All-Star hype, and staked a claim as the best player for the Hawks post-break.

And then there’s Brooklyn. Given the upcoming Kevin Durant–Kyrie Irving combo, it’s easy to forget the type of franchise the Nets were in the mid-2010s.

Shaking off the remnants of their not-so-glorious past — highlighted by a trade that saw them give away a boatload of picks for players that were past the point of being past their prime — the Nets were among the worst in the league. Within two years, Carroll helped transform into a playoff team in 2018-19, a far cry from the 28-win team they were in the season prior.

Players from that Nets team also harped on his leadership in a Nets Daily column written by Anthony Puccio just two seasons back:

"“I like how DeMarre always played. His work ethic is good, he’s a leader. Sometimes with his accent we don’t know what he’s saying, but his intent is in the right place,” said Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, looking two lockers over and laughing towards Carroll. “That leadership role, that voice, that experience. He brings a lot to the team. We appreciate it, you know, we can just be a young team with no veteran guys. [We’re] fortunate enough to have a guy like him. [He’s] been through it, been around Kenny [Atkinson] for a long time, knows what Kenny wants, and kind of dumbs down the message whenever he gets the message from Kenny,” said Russell."

Carroll was obviously only a close-knit, contributing factor in those processes, but after you’ve been a critical cog to three or four different franchises improving their win totals in that manner, he deserves some credit for that.

To say that the signings of either Carroll or Gay are the ones that put the Spurs in the driver’s seat in the Western Conference would be overzealous. But what they will do is give the Spurs a major upgrade from their bench play last season.

DeMar DeRozan played 75 percent of his time at the small forward position last season, per Basketball-Reference. Behind him were the likes of Dante Cunningham and Quincy Pondexter.

With all due respect to each of their games, adding Carroll here gives the Spurs much more freedom in lineups and versatility. It very well could serve as the difference in a few wins, which, in the Western Conference, goes quite a ways.

Even if the Spurs didn’t elect to use their mid-level exception and go “big,” the small steps could be the ones that matter in the modernized NBA.