Raptors' Carroll dismisses Crowder's comments: 'We want to go under the radar'
The Toronto Raptors are used to being overlooked.
Even after winning 56 games, finishing second in the East, and taking the eventual champion Cleveland Cavaliers to six games in the conference finals, people still aren't expecting much from the lone team north of the border.
Jae Crowder is one of those people. He said as much earlier this week.
Related: Crowder says, 'Toronto is not a team we're worried about'
DeMarre Carroll dismissed those remarks, saying it comes from a place of inexperience.
"I just think it's a comment from a person who really hasn't been in the playoffs," the forward told Sportsnet's Jeff Blair on Friday. "When you haven't been on that level, you don't understand what it takes to get to that level. Myself, going to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals, I understand what it takes."
Coming off two breakout campaigns with the Atlanta Hawks, Carroll joined another one of the league's less "sexy" teams in the Raptors last offseason. He's used to not being surrounded by hype, and in fact, he insists he and his teammates prefer it that way.
"You just go under the radar, do your job, and then you end up where you need to be," he said. "I feel like that's the type of team we are. We want to go under the radar. We don't want to be that team getting all the glamour and being on TNT and NBA TV and all that.
"We want to just be one of those physicality teams that goes under the radar. And at the end of the season, you look up, we're in the NBA Finals."
Carroll - who'll turn 30 on Wednesday - suffered the first significant injury of his career this past campaign, which forced him to miss 56 regular-season contests. He's optimistic his team, which returns mostly intact, can go even deeper in the playoffs in 2016-17, barring injuries.
"I feel like if we can get a whole year under our belt, the sky's the limit for us," he said. "We just gotta try to stay healthy, especially entering the postseason. ... If we can stay healthy, man, the basketball will take care of itself."
Until then, he won't let naysayers bother him because he knows what his club is capable of.
"When adversity hit, we responded. We don't have to do too much talking. We'll let our game do the talking. We'll let Jae Crowder get in the media and do all his talking. We'll just fly under the radar and do what we're supposed to do, and that's to hopefully one day bring a championship to Toronto," Carroll added.