DeMarre Carroll finally got his big payday Wednesday, agreeing in theory to a four-year, $60 million deal that will make him the highest-paid player on his team. But the deal isn’t with the Atlanta Hawks, the team where he made his name for the last two seasons. In fact, the Hawks weren’t even among the top four most aggressive bidders, Carroll told HuffPost Live on Wednesday. “Atlanta, they made a semi-push but not as hard as I thought they would,” he told HuffPost Live’s Marc Lamont Hill. “I had four other teams making the big push.” “They [the Hawks] really didn’t even really come with too much, according to my agent,” he added, noting his agent conducted most of the negotiations …
DeMarre Carroll finally got his big payday Wednesday, agreeing in theory to a four-year, $60 million deal that will make him the highest-paid player on his team.
But the deal isn’t with the Atlanta Hawks, the team where he made his name for the last two seasons. In fact, the Hawks weren’t even among the top four most aggressive bidders, Carroll told HuffPost Live on Wednesday.
“Atlanta, they made a semi-push but not as hard as I thought they would,” he told HuffPost Live’s Marc Lamont Hill. “I had four other teams making the big push.”
“They [the Hawks] really didn’t even really come with too much, according to my agent,” he added, noting his agent conducted most of the negotiations without him. Carroll eventually agreed to a deal with the Toronto Raptors.
Carroll bounced around his first six seasons in the league, suiting up for four different teams and only playing in 16 games total over one three-season stretch. In Atlanta, he found a role and an identity as a defensively minded starter. He was a key member of the team last season when the Hawks surprised the league by winning more games than anyone else in the Eastern Conference.
But he also made just $5 million over the last two years, far below his market value. And if he had stayed with the team, along with All-Star Paul Millsap, to whom the team has extended big money, Carroll would have had to take a big pay cut, he said.
In the end, Toronto extended an offer Carroll couldn’t turn down, for reasons both financial- and role-related.
“I know Toronto came into house and they did a good job of presentation and it kind of wowed me and my family away,” he concluded.
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DeMarre Carroll Says Atlanta Hawks Weren’t Even Among Top 4 Bidders
