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Report: DeMarre Carroll could receive up to $50M in free agency

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The Junkyard Dog is about to eat.

One of the NBA's most notable breakout players over the last two years, Atlanta Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll finds himself at the doorstep of unrestricted free agency after a disappointing conclusion to a terrific season.

As if his emergence as a perimeter stopper and outside shooting threat hadn't raised his profile enough, Carroll surely earned more fans by gutting it out through knee, hip, and toe injuries during the playoffs. Factor in how rare a wing who can help on both ends hitting the market is, and it's not hard to imagine Carroll getting over an Eastern Conference Finals loss quickly with a big payday ahead of him.

The size of that payday can't be overstated, according to Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN:

There might not be a player in the league who drove up his price more than Carroll this season - and postseason. League sources say that the high appraisal on Carroll is four years and $50 million, with the regular caveat these days ... that the combination of a league brimming with cap space and a salary-cap number one year away from an historic explosion could compel a single team to go even higher.

The Hawks like Carroll a ton, but they're also a pragmatic and unemotional front office that doesn't have a single player on their roster under a contract that's unfavorable to the team. That's unlikely to change going forward.

With Paul Millsap also due for unrestricted free agency and a raise, the Hawks could look quite different next season. Arnovitz suggests if the Hawks are to keep both players, they may need to move other pieces to get to a comfortable team salary number, though a change in ownership makes any guesswork on that front difficult.

It's impossible not to root for Carroll to cash in, even if you're a Hawks fan who would love for him to take a team-friendly discount.

After transferring from Vanderbilt to Missouri following his sophomore college season, Caroll was shot in the ankle during a nightclub dispute. He bounced back, but just before the 2009 NBA Draft, he found out he had liver disease, something for which he may eventually need a liver transplant.

Still, he was taken 27th overall by the Memphis Grizzlies. He played sparingly, eventually getting traded to the Houston Rockets and then waived. From there, he landed a camp invite with the Denver Nuggets, appearing in four games before again getting waived. He got his break with the Utah Jazz in late 2011-12, carving out a role as a defender off the bench, one that earned him a two-year, $5-million deal with the Hawks in 2013.

Carroll has continued to work and improve, averaging 11.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.4 steals over the last two seasons while knocking down 37.9 percent of his threes.

All of that work, all of the grinding, the D-League time and the camp invites and the non-guaranteed deals and the overseas money forgone, it's all set to pay off come July 1.

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