DeMarre Carroll, Frustrated In San Antonio, Hopeful For New Opportunity

Spurs forward DeMarre Carroll is making no secret of his frustration with his role in San Antonio, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. Carroll has 15 straight DNP-CDs and counting,

Carroll agreed to a three-year, $21MM contract with the club in a sign-and-trade from Brooklyn this summer. The Spurs are only on the hook for $1.35MM in the final season of his deal (2021/22).

The 33-year-old was not with the Spurs when they started their eight-game rodeo trip on February 2, as the club looked into moving him by the February 6 trade deadline, per Orsborn. Before things had reached this point, Carroll was already vocal about his reduced role.

Carroll, known as a prototypical three-and-D forward who can play either position, holds career averages of 9.0 PPG and 4.3 RPG, while shooting 35.9% from deep on 3.2 attempts a night. Those numbers have cratered this season with the Spurs, where he is averaging just nine minutes a night and has appeared in only 15 games.

“I felt like San Antonio was going to be a great place for me, for my talents,” Carroll said of his frustrating tenure with the Spurs this season. “But it didn’t work out.”

Due to the length of Carroll’s current contract, a buyout that satisfies both sides may be difficult to achieve — an offseason trade may be more realistic. Carroll was noncommittal when asked about the possibility of his buyout, suggesting his agent Mark Bartelstein is at least exploring the idea.

“He is handling that,” Carroll said. “[He] and [Spurs general manager] Brian (Wright) and all of them. I don’t know what direction we are going to go. But at the end of the day, at 33, I don’t want to waste my talents just sitting at the end of the bench, knowing I could help a team produce.”

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