Q&A: DeMarre Carroll

Courtesy of Chris Vivlamore 

Q. What do you think about when you look back at the season?

A. I’m still trying to recover. Tough loss. Didn’t want to end that way. But I think we’ve got to take the positives from it. We are a young team. Now we know what we have to do next year. We are taking the positives from it. But, me, I’m a sore loser. I don’t like to lose.

Q. What do you take away from the season?

A. Next year, we laid the foundation, and we want to be the most aggressive team in the NBA. We want to bring it physically and mentally. Whenever we step on the court we want to be the most aggressive blue collar team.

Q. How do you personally assess your growth as a player?

A. I think I did really well. This is like the first year – I have to give a shout out to coach Quin (Snyder) – this is the first year a coach really worked with me on my footwork, my shot, spent time with me. That’s a credit to coach Quin. That shows me that he cares about me as a person, cares about me career. I think I’m headed in the right direction. I feel like a rookie. I finally got to play and do what I do. There is a lot of room for growth for me. I’m just trying to get better.

Q. What do you want to work on this summer?

A. I want to get my shot automatic, like Kyle Korver. I want to be the African-American Kyle Korver. … That is what I want people to know. Then I want to work on my ball-handling. Get my ball-handling better. Pick-and-roll is going to be big for me. There are not a lot of small forwards who do pick-and-roll besides LeBron James and Paul George. I want to step outside myself and work on my ball-handling.

Q. How would you grade the team defense?

A. I think it was good. We are heading in the right direction. I know I’m the anchor of the defense. We need to get to the A range. We are trying to be like San Antonio and I’m the anchor of it. I have to step up and be a more vocal leader next year. Defense is my thing.

Q. Did you surprise yourself at the level you were able to raise your game this season?

A. Not really. I noticed I could really play in this league a summer ago when I was in L.A. and Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett came to me and they were like ‘We need to get you on our team.’ That made me get confidence that I could play in this league. I didn’t know that I could play at that level but I know I could play pretty high.

Q. How did you see the progress from the beginning and with all the injuries?

A. I think we grew a lot. We had so much adversity. People really forget we were No. 3 in the East and then Al (Horford) got hurt. We still was No. 3 and then injuries just starting taking a toll on our team. That just showed us that when adversity hits we are such a strong group of guys and we can take on any challenge. I really have to give credit to coach (Mike Budenholzer). He’s a first-year head coach, the composure he had this whole year. He will shout at you and yell at you and take you down but he’ll build you right back up. A lot of coaches don’t do that. His communication skill level is the best. I think he’s a great coach.

Q. What will your summer be like?

A. I’ve got a lot of camps I’m going to do. I just found out I’m going to do one (in Atlanta). Take a vacation. I’ve got a little girl. I’m going to spend a lot of time with her. Take about a month off. Me and Quin we just wrote down our plan. We are going to get back at it. They won’t let me play in summer league. I wanted to play summer league and work on my ball-handling but they won’t let me play.