Atlantic Notes: Carroll, Crowder, Stauskas

DeMarre Carroll said the Raptors “blew me away” when the team came to meet him to make the pitch that ultimately yielded their four-year, $60MM deal, and he canceled meetings with the Pistons, Suns and Knicks, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. The Pistons were willing to give the forward $14MM a year, but Toronto countered with its offer to outbid them, a source said to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).

Here’s the latest out of the Atlantic Division:

• The Knicks were one of the teams in pursuit of Jae Crowder before he re-signed with the Celtics, league sources told Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
• The Sixers planned to select Nik Stauskas with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, but were beaten to the punch by the Kings, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Philly ended up selecting Elfrid Payton before dealing him to the Magic for the draft rights to Dario Saric, Pompey adds. The Sixers are poised to acquire the shooting guard from Sacramento.
• Philly GM Sam Hinkie‘s waiting game may end up working to the Sixers‘ advantage, Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. With the NBA salary cap set to increase over the coming seasons, there will be far more teams with cap space than without, and Philadelphia’s stockpiling of draft picks and young assets could give the franchise an advantage, Sielski notes.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.