Yesterday Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll met with the media for an update on his injured knee, which has kept him off the floor for nearly three months.
He said he hopes to get some kind of game action in at the end of the regular season (the Raptors have eight games remaining), but is aiming to be back on the court come playoff time.
“After playing in the Eastern Conference final with Atlanta (last season),” Carroll said, “I understand what it takes and what role I need to play. All I need (are) a couple games (for conditioning).”
It’s a tough spot for the Raptors. On the one hand, both Carroll’s defense and playoff experience were expected to fill a major need for the club when he was signed to a four year/$60 million contract this past off-season. He factored to play major minutes on this current team, but even in a lesser role you’d think the team can still benefit from him suiting up even for 15 minutes a game in the post-season.
But on the flip side, the Raptors are in the midst of a wildly successful season, establishing a new record for wins in a season and comfortably sitting atop the East standings for the better part of the season. And they’ve done it largely without Carroll (when he did play even he admits he wasn’t near 100% healthy), getting major and, to a degree, surprising contributions from the likes of 2nd round pick Norm Powell and James Johnson in his place.
Are the Raptors better off letting (forcing might be the more apt word) Carroll continue to rehab and aim for a return at the start of next season? Or bring him back into the fold for the playoffs, knowing he can provide legitimate help while potentially risking disrupting a good thing going?
The players themselves aren’t too concerened, which makes sense given how they’ve coped without Carroll in the lineup.
“At this point I know he’s trying his best to get back,” Bismack Biyombo said while appearing on the Andrew Walker show on Sportsnet 590 The FAN on Thursday. “But we have faced this problem the whole season, where players are hurt here and there. We go out and we compete, and we’ve won a ton of games with players being hurt. I don’t think that should be an excuse for us.”
Biyombo would know firsthand, given how he’s stepped up this season in the 21 games Jonas Valanciunas missed this season to injury. So understandably he’s willing to hedge his bets when it comes to Carroll.
“We hope to have him before the playoffs start,” Biyombo said, “but if that’s not the case I’m sure that other guys will step up and be ready to get it done. We have more than enough [talent] to get it done. Norm, JJ, and Terrence have stepped up and have done an amazing job.”
Biyombo added that Carroll’s return would make an immediate impact on defense: “For me as a defensive guy you definitely want to see DC on the floor because he makes things easy for you. But I look at the big picture and know that things happen for a reason. At this point it is what it is. And at the end of the day when it comes down to the playoffs we all have to be at our best in order to really get it done. That’s the only way to look at it: Whatever it takes.”
