LAS VEGAS– In a free agency period where LaMarcus Aldridge took what seemed like two dozen meetings and DeAndre Jordan’s recruiting process turned into the most bizarre sequences in years, the Toronto Raptors lured prized wing DeMarre Carroll away from the Atlanta Hawks before he left to meet with anyone else.
So how did they do it?
Well, $60 million over four years certainly helped. But it was more than that.
SheridanHoops conducted one-on-one interviews with Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, coach Dwane Casey and Carroll himself to get a feel for how the Raptors sold Carroll on the team and the direction of the franchise.
On July 1, a team of Toronto representatives led by Ujiri and Casey went to Carroll’s house and began selling him on the Raptors’ vision as a franchise and Carroll’s integral role in it.
“They come to my house, they welcomed my family, they told me my role was going to be bigger,”Carroll told SheridanHoops. “They just made me feel like it was home. I felt like it was the best opportunity for me and my family.”
Toronto hasn’t had much recent success attracting high-level free agents. Ujiri admitted that this was something the organization had to change.
“We needed to improve, over the years, how we present to free agents,” Ujiri told SheridanHoops. “But we met with him and went from there. We just went out and presented our story, what we want to do, our team, our plans and try to sell the Toronto Raptors.”
According to a source close to the recruitment process, Carroll had plans to have an in-person meeting with Detroit. But that was quickly cancelled after Ujiri and company closed the deal.
“We have to do a better job, I have to do a better job, on selling players on what we have,” Ujiri said. “That starts with our culture, with starting to win and building a plan that is attractive to players and Toronto.”
The team’s plan for Carroll is to lead a defense that regressed last season. After Toronto finished 10th in defensive rating and seventh in scoring defense in 2013-2014, the Raptors fell to 25th in defensive rating and 19th in scoring defense this past season.
“I think defensively that I’ll be the backbone, more like the lead on defense, which I kind of was on Atlanta. I think I’ll be a more vocal leader,” Carroll said.
In a league that now stresses positional versatility and “3 and D” players, Carroll checks off all the proverbial boxes. Casey agreed.
“He can play the three or the four, he can guard one, two, three and four, so he’s a very versatile player for us,” Casey told SheridanHoops.
Carroll’s main focus will be on defense, but he posted career highs in scoring, field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage, offensive rating and offensive win shares last season. He shot 48.7 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from three. What he does on the offensive end is legit.
“He’s a basketball junkie,” Casey said. “I think he saw ways to win with us, to help us improve the team. I think more than the fit, he looked around the league and saw a defensive-minded team. From that standpoint, Masai did a good job with putting together a presentation of where we were, who we were, how he fit in overall to the program, how he fit in defensively and offensively. It’s a perfect fit.”
It sure looks like a perfect fit for an organization that had seemingly plateaued. Toronto was completely exposed defensively in a four-game steamrolling by Washington in the first round of the playoffs. Speculation spread that big changes were coming for the Raptors, including potentially breaking up the dynamic young backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
Carroll will join a starting lineup that includes Lowry, DeRozan, big man Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross. Ross regressed in many ways in his third season, but Ujiri said he still has big plans for the small forward.
“Oh yeah, big time. Terrence Ross is a big fit,” Ujiri said. “He’s not going anywhere.”
The organization is hopeful that Carroll’s signing will help them escape the first round of the postseason.
“We’re a young team, a growing team, and we’re trying to take that next step as far as in the playoffs,” Casey said. “Probably the hardest step to take in pro sports is trying to go from good to great.”
The additions of Carroll, Canadian point guard Cory Joseph and young big man Bismack Biyombo in addition to the drafting of point guard Delon Wright has Ujiri excited about the team’s future.
“The whole organization, from Masai on down, is a great selling point for this team,” Casey said.
Ujiri and Casey were finally able to sell a big time free agent on the Raptors and the direction they’d like to take. They would like to see DeMarre Carroll help lead this modern Toronto franchise to new heights.
Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for SheridanHoops who focuses on analytics, profiles and features. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. You should follow him on Twitter.