Dwane Casey is a good man, bordering on being a great man. He was a black man playing on a still VERY WHITE Kentucky team when he was in college. He continued in the game after that by becoming an assistant coach. A good one. But he got falsely labeled as a coach who got caught paying off a player to come to Kentucky. The NCAA, in a rare moment of acting in the actual 'best' interests of the college game, kicked him out of avocation and passion. That the NCAA ended up being wrong is also par for the course. Outside of cashing cheques, there is little that the NCAA does right.
Casey was wronged. Exiled to Japan to continue his quest to coach back in America. Brought back to the States as an assistant coach in the NBA, Casey developed a reputation as a defence guru, and a good one at that. Everywhere he went, he was popular with the rest of the coaching staff, players, team support personnel and the media. By seepage, it also became something of a given that even the great unwashed masses, the fans, also liked him. He eventually got the head gig with Minnesota and then was dunkirked by an owner too new to the post-Kevin Garnett world to allow Casey to develop. His mistake ended up being Toronto's fortune as Casey was free to take over from Jay Triano who took over from another Coach of the Year type, Sam Mitchell, himself a former Minnesota player and coach. The circle of the coaching life.
In Toronto, while in a historically good run, Casey has been exposed for what he's not. A good head coach. And his signature defence has failed to make the leap from good to great. Casey's rep has grown this year thanks to the revamped offensive attitude of the team, but Nick Nurse basically designed that change and it was ordered from on high by Masai Ujiri, the GM. Getting credit for extracting better offence from BASICALLY the same team as was available the year before ... when HE should have noted the failures and made changes... ANY changes... in the Raptor hero-ball offence where Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan pounded the ball before going solo waaaaaaaaay to often, seems like sneaking a peak at somebody else's paper and getting an A where only a B was deserved. NO, Casey didn't cheat, but NO, Casey doesn't get credit in this quarter for Nurse's work implementing Ujiri's command.
Coach of the Year? Ahhhhh, NO. Wouldn't even make my top three, with Brad Stevens, Quinn Snyder and Mike D'Antonio (hey, YOU try mixing two alpha dog ball-handlers on the same team and not have it blow up in your face). Nate McMillan also might be a better choice for the award.
Casey has proven, as a HEAD COACH, incapable of making the in-game adjustments winners have to make. He's won series, more than any other coach in Raptors' franchise history, but a lot of the wins were with better talent. He gets some credit for NOT SCREWING UP the better team, but too many of those games were too close to give him MUCH credit. His coaching, save for a single quarter in game 3 against Cleveland, rates as abysmal. His insertion of Lucas Noguiera, too often ignored because of his flaws and injury issues, suddenly put into that final game at a critical juncture ... with Jonas Valanciunas' dominating first quarter a seeming memory, ranks as one of the most curious coaching moves in recent memory. Casey, the fine man, and I'm NOT being sarcastic here, then LOST ME, when he explained the move as something the assistant coaches wanted. Under the bus is a bad spot to be.
Toronto will have to find a new head coach. And the irony that he MIGHT win the Coach of the Year in a sort of lifetime achievement sort of thing, is not lost on me nor on the Raptor management. The situation is similar to the one Golden State faced when they realized Mark Jackson had a limit to what he could do with the assemblage of young talent they had gathered. It was a bit of a tempest when they replaced Jackson with Steve Kerr. An announcer replacing ... well the future announcer. It was a trade of positions. Nothing I've heard OF Jackson or FROM Jackson since then makes me think it was a mistake. Ohhh, the World Championships MIGHT have occurred with Jackson at the helm. But I don't believe that. Jackson has a lot of supporters, not the least of which was because he's considered a good man. Where have I heard THAT before? Think, think, think ... yeah, right here.
In the best of times, Casey gets another job and maybe uses the experiences here in Toronto to learn and excel elsewhere. I actually hope that happens to him. Maybe in college, maybe in the NBA. He also could go back to the role that I think he's actually quite suited for: head assistant for defence. I think he KNOWS the game and can COACH defence. Just like players who range from sub-par to average to good to great, coaches have different levels of talent. Why would it be surprising that an expert on coaching defence might NOT be able to handle the subtleties of offence and of managing a roster of players? That's NOT the same expertise. And yes, many specialists DO learn other areas, but many just don't. But Casey is not a good enough head coach right now to lead a team on the VERGE of being GREAT into actually BEING GREAT.
I coached softball at significant levels. But I was flawed enough that the teams I was involved with that had the most success had me as an assistant coach. I knew the game and could teach it. But I was always stuck with the problem of thinking that I was a baseline as a player and that everybody should be able to do as well as me ... at a minimum. I didn't have talent, just a brain. And, yet, that brain could not assimilate that others couldn't think at the speeds I did. I still don't really get it. But it was true despite me ignoring the truth right in front of me. As a head coach, that flaw was magnified. As an assistant, my intensity was like a tool in a drawer. Useful in some places, not called for in others.
Reluctantly, I join the chorus to oust Casey. I've never actually been a FAN of his professional work, but I'm a fan of him, the person. Still, I place Raptor needs over his. The many rather than the few. The Raptors have to make changes. Somebody else, who won't ignore DeRozan's rather bizarre history of offensive improvements each season against a declining (from an originally pretty low intensity) interest in defence. The rationale? You can't practice defence all by yourself. All those hours DeRozan puts in the gym honing one offensive skill after another (his ball-handling and decision-making in crowds, shows even offensive skills that involve other players), can't be improved upon ENOUGH. A new coach, a new approach, might yet pull the complete player out of DeRozan. A new coach won't make DeRozan the principal ball-handler in pressure situations. That remains one of the most bizarre of Casey's decisions.
A new coach might not come from the obvious candidates, Nurse, Jerry Stackhouse or less likely Rex Kalamian. Tainted by association or too new to coaching (Stackhouse), makes any of them a risky choice. Me? I take Stackhouse in a New York second before he goes to Orlando. I wouldn't get too upset if Nurse is elevated. The coaching choices out there include a pair of Van Gundy's that I would be happy with. Jeff before Stan, by the way. NO to Jackson. I'm not sold on Mike Budenholzer as anything other than Casey redux. A guy to get TO the greatness line, but no evidence he'd bounce the squad past it. David Blatt interests me. A more experienced Jay Triano is available and Toronto has has sooooooo many reunions with players and coaches that I would hardly be surprised if he took a second tour with the team. Would Ujiri have the guts to pick Becky Hammon from San Antonio's bench? Hopefully, Jason Kidd's name doesn't float up to the top. I'm pretty sanguine about him as a person.
However, the time has come for Dwane without the Y to become EX-coach of the Raptors.
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