Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
JULY 9TH, 9:26am: The deal is official, the team announced (on Twitter).
JULY 1ST, 11:07am: The Raptors will sign DeMarre Carroll, the small forward revealed on his verified Twitter account (hat tip to Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com). It’s a four-year, $60MM deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). The Hawks weren’t going to give much more than $50MM on a four-year arrangement, tweets Arnovitz. Carroll said the Pistons and Suns also had interest but the Raptors simply went over the top with their offer, tweets Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Knicks, Lakers and Celtics all appeared to have interest in Carroll, too, as did the Hawks, but they were growing pessimistic about retaining the Mark Bartelstein client in tandem with Paul Millsap. Carroll is a three-and-D wing whose value skyrocketed after he signed a two-year, $5MM deal with Atlanta in 2013, and it wasn’t an easy decision for him to leave the Hawks, as he told Vivlamore (Twitter link).
Toronto will use much of its max-level cap space on Carroll, likely cutting the team off from a pursuit of LaMarcus Aldridge or another marquee target. The Raptors gained $6.6MM worth of cap flexibility when they traded Greivis Vasquez last week.
Wow…toronto just got a lot better on the perimeter, but I don’t know if this alone will put them over the top. They still need something more in the front court
As for Atlanta, it should be interesting to see how they attempt to replace DeMarre. They will need another wing player, unless they decide to keep their faith in Bazemore as a starter. Sefolosha should help ease the loss a bit though
Good move by the raptors!