Raptors’ Carroll knows no limits
New swingman has toughness and stubborness
TORONTO • The Toronto Raptors spent US$60 million on DeMarre Carroll this off-season in order to import, among other things, his toughness. The Raptors had been embarrassed in the playoffs, exposed as a soft team on both ends. Hence, Carroll, the swingman who is one of the league’s best manifestations of the cliché of grit, the self-made player, is here.
The problem with toughness is it usually comes married to both stubbornness and pride. Carroll had been suffering from plantar fasciitis, a persistent pain in his right foot, pretty much since the regular season started. It is too early in the year for Carroll to have risked making the injury linger longer, and yet he did it anyway. His whole philosophy is that the game can be taken away from him at any point, so he wants to play every minute possible. More than most, he can lose sight of the bigger picture.
“I think (the training staff) kind of figured it out when I was in the locker room and every time I got dressed I was walking on my tippy toes,” Carroll said before the game. “I didn’t want to put my foot down, so I think the trainers were like, ‘Enough is enough, we know you’re a tough guy.
“I think if it was up to me I still would’ve been playing but the coaches, the training staff, my agent, they basically made me (sit out). They made the decision for me and told me I really need to think about the long term of the season rather than think about now.”
That mindset is both admirable and foolish, particularly in the first eighth of the season. Carroll wound up missing three games with the injury, but not before playing in the Raptors’ first six games of the season at less than full strength. He returned for the Raptors’ 100-81 win over New Orleans on Friday night.
The Raptors, clearly, need Carroll in order to thrive. He is their best wing defender by a large margin, and a dangerous three-point threat. The team’s three-point shooting has been awful this season — it continued in the first half on Friday — and Carroll’s ability to knock down shots off of drives from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan is essential for the Raptors to produce even an average offence. Without that shooting, defences will collapse on the guards and Jonas Valanciunas, and the Raptors’ attack will be squashed.
There can be no doubt about his defensive value. In the first half, he drew a pushoff charge from the scorching Eric Gordon about 20 feet from the basket, so desperate was Gordon to create some breathing room. He later took the brunt of an Omer Asik charge as he dogged guard Ish Smith. Let’s just say opponents were not cheating in order to shake Terrence Ross, Lou Williams or Greivis Vasquez last year. Carroll would swallow up Gordon in the third quarter on a drive.
It is understandable why the Raptors wanted to sign him, and why they want him on the floor. Alas, it is November.
It is excellent that the Raptors forced Carroll to rest; you would hope that they would take every precaution with an injury that is notoriously difficult to permanently fix.
“(I) just kept my feet up, man. And my wife, she did a good job doing everything for me,” Carroll said of his recovery. She took the dogs out, she raked the leaves. ... I think I owe her a good dinner.”
Luis Scola talks about basketball in a spiritual way, as you would expect of a man who has been a professional since he was 15. The ball will find him where it is meant to find him; the other players’ skills will dictate which of his skills he leans on most. It is a very mature world view for a very mature player.
As such, Scola is taking three-point shots this year. Over the first eight years of his career, Scola averaged 0.1 three-point attempts per 36 minutes, peaking with 0.4 last year. This year, that number has inflated to 1.8. It is still just about one long-range heave per game for Scola, but for a player who has never attempted more than 20 in any single season, that is a massive bump. Oh yeah — he has knocked in half of his attempts. “The NBA is moving in that direction,” Scola said. “We all know how effective the threepoint shot is in the basketball game today. I’m trying to adapt. That’s the way teams are playing. “I’ve been working a lot on it the last couple of years. This year I’m getting a lot of confidence (from the) coaches to do that. When you have confidence, you do more things.”
Scola’s experimentation has been necessary for the raptors, who are labouring badly from distance. The raptors are shooting just 31.6 per cent from three-point range, 23rd in the league. Of the team’s four most willing gunners, only one, Kyle Lowry, is hitting at his typical rate. Terrence ross and demarre Carroll are both injured (and were struggling before those injuries), while Patrick Patterson is shooting 29 per cent.
Scola has said that context has not caused him to shoot more. However, it might explain why the ball is finding him behind the arc more often.
“The shots will be pretty much the same with any situation with the team,” Scola said. “It’s just whatever the game gives you. I’m just trying to help the team win. We’ve got two guys that are our main offensive focus, who are Kyle and demar (derozan). We also have Jonas (valanciunas), who is playing really well offensively. He’s a (centre), and he’s our … first option (in the paint). everybody else, we just need to play around the game. Play the game, be smart, move, play very hard.”
“It’s a pleasant surprise,” raptors coach dwane Casey said. “He’s worked on it every day after practice, and so I see him do it. He’s done a good job of spacing the floor and being a three-point threat for us. … We encourage all of our guys — if you work on it, you’ve got the green light, feet set in the corner, take those threes.”
Patterson was supposed to be the power forward who was able to provide spacing, but it just has not manifested in that manner. Patterson hit 38.2 per cent of his threepoint attempts in his first 129 games as a raptor over the last two years, the main reason he was expected to start this season at power forward. However, watching Patterson reveals the portrait of a player who is, for the moment, lost in his own head.
Against Philadelphia, Patterson travelled twice when opting to dribble instead of take a three-pointer that he would normally take. While Scola talks relentlessly about feeling the game, Patterson is so clearly thinking the game at the moment — a slight difference, perhaps, but a very meaningful one.
“you know, sometimes you do overthink it. Play basketball, have fun, it’s a game, it’s not rocket science. And he is,” Casey said of Patterson. “He’s one of our most astute players that we have. He understands every position offensively, every position defensively.”
Casey expressed confidence that Patterson will eventually find his stroke, and he is probably right. He has a long enough track record to suggest he will start hitting shots soon.
until then, the guy with a huge track record that says nothing about three-point shooting will try to fill the void.
“A coach once told me, this was many years ago, he said, ‘It’s only a mistake if you miss it. If you make it, it’s a good thing.’ How’s that?” Scola said with a smile. “That’s just the way it is. OK, I’ll play within those rules.”
He’s done a good job of spacing the floor and being a three-point threat