NBA Rumors: DeMarre Carroll drawing major interest from Lakers

Atlanta Hawks’ small forward DeMarre Carroll is in the midst of his best season in the NBA and now he’s drawing major interest from the Los Angeles Lakers.

With the 2015 NBA Playoffs winding down, DeMarre Carroll is starting to draw major interest for the upcoming offseason seeing as he’s due to be a free agent. After inking a two-year, five-million dollar deal with the Atlanta Hawks in 2013, he has been a completely different player.

In his first four years in the league, Carroll played with four different teams and never averaged more than 6.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per contest. It seemed like the former Missouri star was going to be a career role player who would never average more than 20 minutes per game.

However, the Hawks have given him new life and he has become more than a role player, Carroll has developed into a solid starter. In fact, he appeared in the starting lineup in 142 of the 143 career regular season games he has been with the Hawks.

As well as developing into a starter and earning the trust of Hawks coaches, Carroll doubled his production, averaging 11.1 points and 12.6 points in the past two seasons, respectively. As well as doubling his point total, he has increased his rebounding considerably as well, averaging 5.5 and 5.3 rebounds, respectively, in the past two years.

Now that he has proven to be a viable option in the starting lineup for the surprisingly successful first-place Hawks, teams around the league looking to rebuild are looking to add his services. The Los Angeles Lakers are one of those teams showing ‘big-time’ interest.

The Lakers had one of the worst seasons in franchise history and a No. 2 pick in the upcoming draft as well as the addition of Carroll could spark a rebuild. If the Lakers can draft a center like Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns and have Julius Randle and DeMarre Carroll at the other two forward positions, this team would be set for a while.

The 28-year old small forward may have just a few games remaining in the 2014-15 season as the Hawks seem to be down, not yet out, of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers — in an 0-2 hole.

Carroll may be playing his last games with the Hawks and he could find his sixth home in seven NBA seasons.

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