What was it that caused DeMarre Carroll to be such trash in Toronto? He looked pretty good in Atlanta, and he’s looking only a little worse in Brooklyn, but in Toronto, he was unplayable booty. These kind of things don’t just happen for no reason, except when they do, but in this case I’m pretty sure if we analyze the situation we can get to the bottom of the situation.
I think part of it is that he was more interested in wearing ugly (some would say “stylish”) outfits than he was in honing his craft. Westbrook can only get away with it because he’s so good already; marginal players are not allowed to be ostentatious with their fashion choices. There’s only so much energy one person is allowed to expend in a given period of time, and NBAers have no choice but to expend most of it on basketball, lest they sabotage themselves.
Issue two: he got paid. It’s a proven fact that players stop trying as hard when they finally secure that big contract. But that doesn’t explain why he returned at least a little bit to his old form when he went to the Nets.
Dwane Casey is an easy scapegoat. He’s been the scapegoat for Jonas Valanciunas’ perceived disappointments for that dude’s whole career. Why not Carroll? If we ignore the reality of the situation, that would be an easy answer, but it’s not right in this case. Carroll was not made to play outside his role, he got plenty of minutes and chances, and he just sucked. I’d sooner blame certain ball-hoggy players on that team for creating a low ball-movement offense that didn’t work to his strengths.
In conclusion: it’s all Lowry and DeRozan’s fault, and now that he’s not a team with those dudes, he’s decent again.