Team-first Carroll is latest Nets acquisition

Ex-Toronto Forward Should Provide Veteran Leadership to Marks, Young Nets

July 11, 2017 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Nets acquired veteran forward DeMarre Carroll from Toronto over the weekend, though the deal cannot be made official until later this week. AP photo by Kelvin Kuo

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Nets general manager Sean Marks can’t talk about newly acquired forward DeMarre Carroll and all the veteran intangibles he will eventually bring to Brooklyn just yet.

Except in hypotheticals, of course.

“Nice hypothetical,” Marks quipped, when asked during the Nets’ Summer League game against Milwaukee Sunday in Las Vegas about acquiring some “leadership” for his group of 20-something NBA neophytes.

Marks dealt Justin Hamilton to the Toronto Raptors over the weekend for Carroll and a lottery-protected, first-round pick, along with a second-round selection.

Though the Nets are on the hook for the remaining two years and $30 million left on the 6-foot-8 grinder’s contract, they also picked up some much-needed grit and savvy for a roster that is loaded with still-blossoming talent.

The move can’t be made official until later in the week, so Marks was mum regarding Carroll specifically, but did hint at what the Nets were looking for when they dove into the offseason swap meet.

“Where we are at right now, we’re trying to add talent all the way around,” he noted.

“That’s what we are looking to do. It’s important to have those [veteran] fits on our team. We’re looking forward to the same from anyone we have on this hypothetical roster.”

Hypotheses aside, the 30-year-old Carroll didn’t take long to spout off about his last season in Toronto, which saw the Raptors get demolished in a four-game sweep at the hands of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“This year, I feel like a lot of guys didn’t trust each other,” Carroll told the Toronto Sun on Monday.

“And a lot of guys, they didn’t feel like other guys could produce or [be] given the opportunity. So there was a lot of lack of trust on our team, so that’s what hindered us from going [as far as we wanted to go].”

Carroll, who will be entering his ninth NBA season and playing for his seventh team when he arrives in Brooklyn, is no stranger to Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson, who was an assistant in Atlanta when the Alabama native played for the Hawks from 2013-15.

Likely to take the starting small forward spot in 2017-18, Carroll should also help fill the veteran void left by All-time Net Brook Lopez, who was sent to the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this summer in the deal that brought 21-year-old guard D’Angelo Russell and veteran center Timofey Mozgov Downtown.

Carroll’s team-first mentality, and belief that the ball should be shared rather than isolated in the hands of one player, is in accordance with the way Atkinson wants the Nets to play going forward.

“You have to build it from the ground up, and that’s what we did in Atlanta,” Carroll recalled. “We built the [culture] moving the ball and trusting each other.”

The Nets are certainly a team in rebuild mode after going a combined 41-123 the past two seasons following three straight trips to the playoffs upon their arrival at Barclays Center.

After going 0-for-4 in landing restricted free agents the last two summers, including missing out on Washington’s Otto Porter Jr., this past week, Marks has acquired an important piece in Carroll — one that helps balance a roster that has looked overloaded with backcourt depth of late.

“It’s one of these deals where a couple of years ago we had a bunch of combo guys, but now you look at it and say they are versatile,” said Marks, referring to his new projected starting guard tandem of Russell and Jeremy Lin, along with reserves Caris LeVert and Brooklyn’s own Isaiah Whitehead.

As eager as Marks is to bring in big-time talent, he also knows that doing so without building a strong foundation of character players willing to embrace a team-first concept is a recipe for long-term failure.

Carroll provides the type of front-court presence the Nets need in the absence of departed veteran players like Lopez and Thaddeus Young over the past two seasons.

His career averages of 8.1 points and 3.8 rebounds per game don’t jump off the scoresheet, but his willingness to be a part of something bigger than himself is in accordance with what Marks and Atkinson are looking for as they rebuild the Brooklyn basketball culture.

Carroll enjoyed his best season as a pro alongside Atkinson in Atlanta in 2014-15, putting up 12.6 points and 5.3 boards per night.

He hopes to replicate, if not exceed, those numbers here in Brooklyn.

“Honestly, Kenny and his staff …. It’s fun to watch,” Marks said. “You would never have noticed that this is a team that has lost 15, 16 in a row [during last season]. They keep an uplifting culture going.”

Nothing But Net: Marks, who witnessed Brooklyn’s 88-83 loss to Milwaukee before a resounding 95-66 thumping of New Orleans in Vegas on Monday, discussed what is likely to be his biggest trade of the summer, the one that brought Russell here from the Lakers for Lopez. “We’ve been following D’Angelo since his days in college and something that always stood out to me was his passing ability,” Marks said. “He’s 21 years old, we could have drafted guys who are older than him” … Marks is still in play to land free agent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of the Detroit Pistons, but has to wait for the Wizards to officially match the Nets’ $106.5 million offer sheet to Porter Jr. to free up the necessary funds. Caldwell-Pope, now considered the most attractive free agent on the open market, originally turned down the Pistons’ qualifying offer, which has since been pulled from the negotiating table.