DeMarre Carroll knows what got him to the NBA.
The Hawks forward is all about the defense. Carroll is the Hawks’ defensive stopper. He routinely guards the opposition’s best non-big player. Want to know what player the Hawks are trying to stop? Generally, you can look to see who Carroll is assigned to guard. Carroll should garner attention for one of the All-NBA defensive teams following the season.
It’s hard to argue with the results. As a team, the Hawks rank sixth in the NBA in fewest points allowed at 97.1 per game.
But then again …
Carroll is having the best offensive season of his career. He is averaging 12.7 points per game. That’s better than the 11.1 points he averaged last season, his first with the Hawks and his first as a full-time starter. Carroll has scored in double-figures 53 times this season, including seven 20-point games.
“I’m just taking advantage of my opportunity,” Carroll said after scoring 19 points in Wednesday’s 114-111 win over the Nets. “Defense is what got me on the court. But I know I’ve been working hard on my offense. I’m never going to come out and say offense is what I do. It’s not. Defense is what I do. Offense is a plus.”
Carroll has been on an offensive tear of late. Over the past six games, he is averaging 18.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. He is shooting an astonishing 70 percent (44-of-63) from the field, including 48 percent (12-of-25) from 3-point range.
Since Carroll set his career-high of 26 points at the Timberwolves on Feb. 9, he has scored in double figures in 12 consecutive and 20 of 22 games.
“I look at guys like (the Spurs’) Kawhi (Leonard), and he came in and he was a defensive guy, the fifth option on the team,” Carroll said. “He raised his game. I looked at myself and said, ‘Why can’t I do the same?’ That’s all I’ve been doing, just trying to better my game and better my team.”
Leonard was named the NBA Finals MVP last season as the Spurs won the title. There are more immediate goals for Carroll with four games remaining in the regular season. The Hawks will enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. As Carroll puts it, “We are trying to do something special.”
Carroll often is one of the last Hawks to leave the practice court. He often stays after to work with assistant coach Kenny Atkinson with both film and on-the-court drills.
According to coach Mike Budenholzer, the key to Carroll’s offensive success is that he is finding different ways to score.
“He has found a way to score and got us some good offensive looks at the basket, whether it was making shots, cutting to the basket, getting to the free-throw line, in transition,” Budenholzer said. “That’s when you can rack up some points when you are scoring a lot of different ways and you are not just depending on one thing.”
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