Everything Coach

[OldSkoolCool]

Every coach will have strengths and weaknesses, the great ones just don't have many. There are a select few (ex: Pop, Phil) who don't have many (if any), and those are due to them having an extreme amount of deep playoffs experience to get where they are now.

When looking at those coaching greats, there is one thing that really stands out about them. They aren't coaches, they are teachers. They aren't up on the sidelines yelling for their guys to do things how they want them too...they have done the job behind the scenes of educating them how to already. All they do is manage matchups to put their guys in good defensive and offensive situations. Of course having elite talent to help run the show doesn't hurt either. They make adjustments on certain matchups quickly (ex: Pop let Mavs go on 8 point run to start the 3rd in game 7....changed the matchup [KL to the 4 to counter VC] and proceeded to troll over the Mavs). These guys also instill confidence into all the players that play for them, whether it is Tim Duncan...or Austin Daye

So when I look at Casey's strengths and weakness I take into consideration the fact that he will learn as he goes

Strengths:
-has locker room, everyone respects him/likes him
-gets his team to engage defensively over a long season
-enthusiastic on the sidelines
-teaches proper rotations

Weaknesses
-In game adjustments are non-existent at best, counter-intuitive at worst
-Lack of confidence in young players, regardless of how well they are playing
-Over-reliance on "veterans", who "already know"
-Offensive acuity is poor
-Accountability is favored. Certain players (mainly vets/stars) are allowed to make mistakes while young guys have zero leash. Disparity like that is BAD
-Plays players out of their strengths

Undecided
-Is player development on him?? Or the assistants?? Personally I think Bayno and Nurse should be credited

That is a lot more weaknesses than strengths.

But.....all that said.....

Casey has had some bad teams to coach so far...and coaches take too much of the blame when they lose, and too much credit when they win. Ujiri is looking to build upon this roster and give Casey some serious talent and we will see when the talent is there whether Casey is the coach that makes it to that great level....time will tell

[Joey]

He saw the ball go out of bounds on one side of the court, called a timeout, then set up play to run ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COURT!!!

That's enough, that alone is enough proof.

They give a nice breakdown here:

Pretty incredible, not going to lie. I was certainly left scratching my head with Hubie Brown.

[Lark Benson]

Casey has had some bad teams to coach so far...and coaches take too much of the blame when they lose, and too much credit when they win. Ujiri is looking to build upon this roster and give Casey some serious talent and we will see when the talent is there whether Casey is the coach that makes it to that great level....time will tell

Exactly.

But I wanted to add that Pop has not always been the amazing coach he is now. He nearly drove Parker out of the league and has since admitted that he rode him way too hard (and you think the way Casey manages Val's minutes has been tough?). He had clashes with Ginobli too. SA has been his only head coaching gig, and if Robinson hadn't broken his foot then who knows how things might have turned out for him? It's a lot easier to succeed when you inherit a one of the best players in the history of the game after one disastrous season. But the point is this: Pop was given the opportunity to grow with his roster (and shape it, because he gave Buford his job after all and you know he still has a hand in every personnel decision) and made the most of it. That's a model that should be emulated.

[JimiCliff]

So every coach should be let go each time they make a mistake, is what you're saying.

I have zero confidence in Casey's end of game play calling. There's just been a major lack of those end of game attempts actually happening.

That said, Casey absolutely deserved this extension. What the team accomplished this year was so far above expectations that you have to reward the coach for having the players play so high above their expected levels. Whether he's the coach to lead them long term remains to be seen, but to get them to this point has to be rewarded.

When that mistake happens during second most important play in franchise history, and when that mistake is so mind bendingly horrendous that you're rarely going to see it at even the high school level, then whoever's in charge has to take a long, hard look at the man responsible.

I hope, for all of our sakes, that that play at least made Masai think for a little while.

[Fully]

I shake my head at some of the dead ball play calling and rotations more than anyone but I can still acknowledge that Casey did a really good job this year. Plenty of young teams fly completely off the rails every single year and these guys looked poised to do it this season when they were 6-12, they were trading away their 'best player', and the tank talk was swirling in every media outlet. 5 months later and they have their best regular season ever, with just about everyone in their top 8 playing the best basketball of their careers down the stretch, while becoming a team with a rep for great effort and chemistry. I don't think that happens without pretty good coaching.

I'm also willing to give Ujiri the benefit of the doubt and assume that if we all see the deficiencies with inbound plays and end of game situations, that he probably sees it too. I'm sure today's decision came with some conversation on a solution for that, whether it's allowing assistants to handle those duties or hiring someone new, or whatever.

I think some of us are guilty of viewing basketball too rigidly. I don't know if it's the current analytics swoon or something else but it seems like we won't give credence to anything that can't be graphed. I'm not an old school ideologist in the least but I think the relationships still matter. They always have. They always will. And I'm talking about the ones from the front office all the way down. The franchise did things differently this year with Leiweke and Ujiri at the helm and the results seemed to be a lot of empowered players and coaches. I feel like you can undermine a lot of that by telling Casey to hit the bricks when his players clearly rallied around him this year.

[007]

When that mistake happens during second most important play in franchise history, and when that mistake is so mind bendingly horrendous that you're rarely going to see it at even the high school level, then the person in charge has to take a long hard look at the man responsible.

I hope, for all of our sakes, that that play at least made Masai think for a little while.

The question is:

Does the end completely overrule the means?

He did get us this far. We went further than anyone, including us, expected. So does this play alone decide whether or not he stays or not?

If Pat Pat has pushed Pierce back another inch, if Pierce had gotten less elevation on his jump, if Lowry had gotten a little extra lift on the floater and it had gone in, would we want so badly to fire Casey?

We would still complain about the mistake and praise Lowry until the board exploded with the love, but we would not be yelling "Fire Casey!" with all our might.

He got us here, and although we can complain all we want about not getting a better shot: even if we did, it still could have missed. There is a always a chance for everything.

Everyone is talking about ifs and coulds and shoulds. We played so bad that game. Be happy we got a chance at all.

Keep Casey, he led us to the promised land, now he will lead us back.

[bryan colangelo]

Hornacek and Budenholzer both looked like way better coaches than Casey this year and both were first time head coach hires in the offseason. We didn't need to get a Van Gundy or bust. If that was every teams mentality then there would never be any coaching changes ever. It's been said a million times in the other threads about the coaching, but I guess you choose to ignore all that.

42-22 after the Rudy Gay trade, where the best and most consistent players left were Kyle Lowry and DeRozan.

When guys are arguing whether anti-clutch John Salmons or a 1-armed bandit Landry Fields should be the first swingman off the bench, your roster is not that great.

Other than maybe Hornacek, Popovich, Stotts and Carlisle, I have a hard time coming up names that could have squeezed as much out of this roster, or had as good a regular season record.

And while we all know there were missed opportunities during the Nets series, we're talking about a team that took a $180 million roster (featuring two HoFamers and 2 regular All-stars) to game 7.

Only the most fickle, cynical fan could not see the merit of bringing back Casey. The GM gave him a set of goals at the beginning of the season (player development and evaluation) and blew them out of the water. The five starters, GV and Patterson had great years. According to the news, all the players in the exit interviews (including Lowry) wanted him back.

People might not like Casey, but there is nothing crazy/wacky/irresponsible/madcap about his rehiring. It's pretty ridiculous how some of the fans on this board are reacting like the Raptors are now doomed forever.

[ceez]

[ceez]

I shake my head at some of the dead ball play calling and rotations more than anyone but I can still acknowledge that Casey did a really good job this year. Plenty of young teams fly completely off the rails every single year and these guys looked poised to do it this season when they were 6-12, they were trading away their 'best player', and the tank talk was swirling in every media outlet. 5 months later and they have their best regular season ever, with just about everyone in their top 8 playing the best basketball of their careers down the stretch, while becoming a team with a rep for great effort and chemistry. I don't think that happens without pretty good coaching.

I'm also willing to give Ujiri the benefit of the doubt and assume that if we all see the deficiencies with inbound plays and end of game situations, that he probably sees it too. I'm sure today's decision came with some conversation on a solution for that, whether it's allowing assistants to handle those duties or hiring someone new, or whatever.

I think some of us are guilty of viewing basketball too rigidly. I don't know if it's the current analytics swoon or something else but it seems like we won't give credence to anything that can't be graphed. I'm not an old school ideologist in the least but I think the relationships still matter. They always have. They always will. And I'm talking about the ones from the front office all the way down. The franchise did things differently this year with Leiweke and Ujiri at the helm and the results seemed to be a lot of empowered players and coaches. I feel like you can undermine a lot of that by telling Casey to hit the bricks when his players clearly rallied around him this year.

Fully does make good points though.

Chisholm did earlier too, basically to the effect that the Raps played great D despite only having 3 or 4 players that are good at playing D. Be interesting to see what the team could do if more of Casey's type players (rugged defenders) are brought in. Signing a guy like Ariza to start at the 3 would be intriguing.

[Primer]

I really hope it works out since I'm stuck with him for the next 3 years, I'm just not that optimistic. I think we're easily a playoff team next year and should hopefully win the Atlantic, but I don't see us reaching the next level under Casey. Hopefully he proves me wrong, because, like I said, I'm stuck with him for the next 3 years.

[enlightenment]

The Players play extremely hard for him. Hard not to keep him around.

[Leo Rautins]

Casey makes some questionable decisions and I will be the first to admit that I was calling for his head after that debacle at Golden State. I will however, give credit where credit is due. Great teams like this years team take on their personality from their coach. Casey's teams consistently fight every night time for him because they respect him as a coach and whatever he's preaching is showing results. Frankly I'm tired of constant change in Toronto and the defensive culture we have is a winning one. We can keep going around the coaching carousal every three years and change the culture but that's not gonna get us anywhere. The team needs to plant it's roots and just grow because without consistency our young players can't develop the right way.

[LBF]

who else were they going to get?

[SpursFanAmbassador]

Coach Casey is really a good coach, im happy for him that he got the 3 year extension. I think that he's part of the reason why raptors was playing great this season. I also believe that he's a big part of the raptor's team chemistry.

[Axel]

I thought Casey did a pretty good job in the playoffs. Our plays out of timeouts were generally better. JV got more minutes than the regular season in the games he outplayed KG in, so there is hope. Nets were a tough matchup defensively but I thought the Casey did a good job in mixing up the coverages despite not having a very good 1-on-1 option.

I'm honestly surprised by the reaction of some people here. Anyone who threatens to not be a fan anymore isn't a fan in my books.