Carroll spared wrath of Toronto fans

Former Raptor listed as Nets’ scratch

The will-they-or-won’tthey question will have to wait a few months.

The Brooklyn Nets decided to rest DeMarre Carroll for Friday night’s game, robbing many Raptors fans of taking part in one of their favourite pastimes, booing ex-Toronto players.

The Nets played Thursday with Carroll scoring 13 points in a loss to New York and because of his history of injuries, the team is being cautious with the forward. Brooklyn won’t return to the ACC until March 23.

Many Raptors fans had expressed displeasure with some of the comments Carroll made, first to Postmedia and then elsewhere, after being dealt to Brooklyn back in July.

Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan, for one, didn’t have an issue with anything Carroll said.

“No, I didn’t take it personal. When you know a guy and when you’re with a guy every single day (for two years) and you know his intentions, you know his heart. You understand there’s no malicious intent behind what he said,” DeRozan said.

But was Carroll right about the Raptors needing to move the ball better?

“Yeah, but you got to go through what you gotta go through to understand what you gotta get better at. I think it was a learning process for us individually and as a whole, as a team and we’re here today (playing better, and more unselfishly, then ever),” he said.

Norman Powell said Carroll was a model teammate.

“He was big for me my rookie year, coming in, talking to me, helping me through a lot of things,” Powell said. “He is a great veteran guy to have in the locker-room. He’s always positive with his teammates no matter what’s going on with him.”

Clearly Toronto’s head coach Dwane Casey wasn’t thrilled with Carroll’s parting comments.

“I’m not (going to) get into what DeMarre thought, what he said. I know our offence was in the top five last year,” began Casey.

“He can be critical all he wants, that’s his opinion. We’ve established a style of play. I know our style of play is the way we have to play. Whether he could fit or not, I’m not (going to) get into that. Again, he has his opinions and unfortunately they came out negative. I don’t know if he meant them in a negative way or not. But we feel like we have one of the top programs in the NBA. I know that our program, our style of play is productive. It’s established an identity the way the league is playing, and I think our guys enjoy playing here, being in Toronto. If he didn’t want to be a part of that, that’s his prerogative,” Casey said.

Among Carroll’s summer comments was that he had been looking to move on for a while because the fit wasn’t a good one for either side.

The Raptors upgraded injured point guard Delon Wright’s status to questionable a couple of hours prior to tipoff.

Wright dislocated his shoulder on Nov. 15 against New Orleans and missed 12 games. The backup point guard’s return will be a welcomed one, since the bench group that he normally leads has struggled.

It also might allow Kyle Lowry to play fewer minutes, which could help in the long run. Lowry’s averaged just shy of 35 minutes a game since Wright’s injury, two or three more than he had averaged to start the season.

Centre Lucas Nogueira said in Phoenix that he is feeling much better. His return is also looming.

Norm Powell got financial security with a contract extension a couple of months ago, but it hasn’t made his on-court life any easier.

The young swingman is in the midst of a brutal shooting slump and has yet to take the leap many expected.

As he searches for answers, Powell has turned to another California native, namely DeRozan, for advice.

“We’ve had a lot of deep conversations just about what he thought about his early time in the league, where he thought he would be and he just really helped me stay mentally locked in and focused,” Powell said in reference to DeRozan.

“He just keeps telling me that I’m young in the league and things are going to come. It might not be right now but to continue to work over a long period of time really helps the future and that’s what he’s been telling me, just to continue to work over the course of this season, over the course of my NBA career and it’ll come together.”