NBA Trade Rumors: DeMarre Carroll could be sneaky good pickup for contender

It is definitely NBA trade rumors season, with the San Antonio Spurs looking to find a new home for DeMarre Carroll. The veteran could help a contender.

After a quiet season on the NBA trade rumors front, activity picked up Monday with the trade deadline looming at 3 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. Among the players who could be had: veteran wing DeMarre Carroll of the San Antonio Spurs, who could be a 3-and-D presence (and veteran locker room voice) for a contender.

According to Jabari Young of CNBC, the Spurs are working with Carroll’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, to find a new home.

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Carroll signed a three-year, $20.65 million deal with San Antonio last summer as a free agent, but it has not been a good marriage between player and team. The 33-year-old has played in just 15 of the Spurs’ first 49 games, averaging only 9.0 minutes per game, the fewest for Carroll since 2010-11.

That season, Carroll played just 4.2 minutes a game in 12 games with the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets.

He hasn’t played since getting two minutes of run against the Boston Celtics on Jan. 8 and has only made two appearances since the calendar flipped to 2020.

This season, it’s been a chicken-or-egg dilemma for Carroll and the Spurs. Is Carroll shooting poorly because he’s not playing enough … or is he not playing more because he’s shooting so poorly?

Carroll is averaging 2.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in those 9.0 minutes a night, shooting just 31.0 percent overall. He has made just 3-of-13 from 3-point range.

He entered this season a career 36.0 percent shooter from deep and hit 34.2 percent on 4.6 attempts a game last season with the Brooklyn Nets.

His career-best mark from 3-point land came in 2014-15 with the Atlanta Hawks, when he hit 39.5 percent on 4.3 attempts nightly for a 60-win team. That Hawks team was swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals and Carroll signed a four-year, $57.9 million deal with the Toronto Raptors as a free agent in July 2015.

Knee trouble sidelined him for all but 26 games in 2015-16 and he wound up in Brooklyn along with first and second-round picks in the 2018 draft as a salary dump, with the Nets giving up only Justin Hamilton in the July 2017 swap.

Carroll responded with a career year in 2017-18, averaging a career-best 13.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 29.9 minutes per game. In 73 games, all starts, he shot 41.4 percent overall and 37.1 percent on 5.4 deep attempts (also a career-high) a night.

The highlights below are from January 2018, but showcase what Carroll can do.

He missed the early part of last season after having an arthroscopic procedure on his right ankle on the eve of the season opener and played in 67 games, mostly as a reserve. Carroll put up 11.1 points and 5.2 boards in 25.4 minutes per game, shooting 39.5 percent overall.

He then started three of Brooklyn’s five games in its first-round loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in last season’s playoffs. He shot only 23.7 percent overall and 29.2 percent from deep in the series, averaging 6.6 points and 4.0 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per game.

Carroll played a small-ball 4 role with the Nets last season but has been primarily used at the 3 this season (as much as he’s been used at all, that is).

He’s still a solid defender who can survive on the perimeter while also providing a 3-point threat at the other end.

He’s on a $7 million salary for this season, with a $6.65 million cap number in 2020-21 and a partial guarantee of $1.35 million of his scheduled $7 million for 2021-22.

It won’t take a lot to get him, but the contracts will still have to come within 20 percent of each other with every team in the NBA save for Atlanta over the cap. San Antonio is also hard-capped as a result of acquiring Carroll in a sign-and-trade, with the Spurs still $9.32 million under the tax line with $13.12 million in room below the cap apron/hard cap, per Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights.

Carroll could be a consolation prize of sorts for a team such as the Houston Rockets, who are reportedly looking hard at Minnesota Timberwolves defensive force Robert Covington to help them on the wing.

The Rockets are trying to shed some more salary — they are currently $321,465 over the tax line, according to Siegel, with a projected tax bill of $482,197. Houston has a $3.62 million trade exception that expires Thursday from dealing Brandon Knight to the Cavaliers last season.

So ideally, the Rockets would want to send out more than it is taking in, with the maximum allowed being $8.4 million (Carroll’s $7 million number plus 20 percent). The problem is that Houston has only one player in that price range and it’s extremely doubtful general manager Daryl Morey would give up P.J. Tucker ($8.35 million).

Nene seems like a candidate to be moved, but his salary is a double-edged sword — it counts $10 million against the Rockets’ cap number but is only a $2.6 million salary if traded. That came after the NBA and National Basketball Players Association ruled the $7.4 million in “likely” bonuses would be excluded as a salary in a trade, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

There are other teams that might want to make a pitch for Carroll as part of a stretch run for a playoff spot or to shore up a contender in the closing part of the season. It’s 2020 in the NBA — no one can ever have too much shooting and Carroll is a known 3-and-D commodity.

Even if he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to show that in San Antonio.