After two lackluster seasons north of the border, the DeMarre Carroll experiment with the Toronto Raptors is over. They have dealt the veteran wingman along with a first round and second round draft pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Justin Hamilton.
Following comes from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Toronto has traded DeMarre Carroll, a future first-round and second-round pick to Brooklyn for Justin Hamilton, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 9, 2017
For Toronto, this was a salary dump of the $30M owed Carroll across next two seasons. Both picks to Nets are 2018. https://t.co/AcK98wnLzp
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 9, 2017
Carroll shined as the three-and-D specialist on the 60-win Atlanta Hawks back in 2015. He was the first member of that team to leave Atlanta and many expected him to join the Raptors and fill a similar role alongside Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas. Unfortunately, Carroll battled injuries almost immediately and he never recovered in his first year only playing 26 games. He bounced back last season to play 72 games but his scoring output dropped below double digits for the first time in over three years.
If the Raptors elect to keep Hamilton on the squad, he’ll be a solid reserve big man option when Valanciunas needs a break. Last season was Hamilton’s first back in the NBA after playing overseas in 2015-16 and for the first time in his NBA career, he was with one team all season. The seven-footer is still only 27 and on a cheap deal so it’s a low-risk move for Toronto outside of giving up what should be a low first round pick.
