Everything Coach

[stooley]

My problem with posts like this is they lack any analysis of Casey's actual coaching on the floor. It's like saying Scott Brooks is a fantastic coach just because OKC had a good record this year. Whereas if you watch Brooks coach, he makes a lot of really stupid decisions and is bailed out by his players. Just because we beat expectations doesn't automatically make Casey a good coach, you need to look at his actual on the court coaching.

Lowry, Derozan, and the rest bailed Casey out so many freaking times this year. Casey is a boneheaded coach who can't think on the fly or adjust. He fucked up the most crucial play in Raptors history by drawing it up for the wrong sideline. The team was winning despite him (Lowry being superman, assistant coaches fixing offense and confidence of JV), not because of him. Casey's vaunted defense was non-existant in the playoffs, and most are quick to blame everyone but Casey.

Main difference? - Casey's team is exceeding expectations in terms of both player development and in-season success. Scott Brooks' squad isn't.

Casey's sometimes questionable rotations are made up by all the rest of the positives associated with him.

[ebrian]

My problem with posts like this is they lack any analysis of Casey's actual coaching on the floor. It's like saying Scott Brooks is a fantastic coach just because OKC had a good record this year. Whereas if you watch Brooks coach, he makes a lot of really stupid decisions and is bailed out by his players. Just because we beat expectations doesn't automatically make Casey a good coach, you need to look at his actual on the court coaching.

Lowry, Derozan, and the rest bailed Casey out so many freaking times this year. Casey is a boneheaded coach who can't think on the fly or adjust. He fucked up the most crucial play in Raptors history by drawing it up for the wrong sideline. The team was winning despite him (Lowry being superman, assistant coaches fixing offense and confidence of JV), not because of him. Casey's vaunted defense was non-existant in the playoffs, and most are quick to blame everyone but Casey.

Yes, there's some flaw to my statement because I overlook the strategic side, but there is just as much flaw to your use of Scott Brooks, who happens to coach the 2nd best player in the league with Dwane Casey. I don't know how good or bad Brooks is. But to throw Brooks into the conversation you'd have to remove Kevin Durant from the equation. If Scott Brooks manages to lead the Thunder without Durant to even a 0.500 record (since it's the West), then you can equate that situation with Casey's.

Look at the win margins we had during the season. This isn't evidence of a coach getting bailed out by two players. If you want to argue about getting bailed out, let's look at how Joakim Noah nearly single-handedly bailed out Tom Thibodeau in their series against Washington. He was thoroughly outcoached although it wasn't Randy Wittman's doing. I consider Thibodeau one of the best coaches in the NBA, but his reputation took a massive hit in the series.

And again the Raptors were written off after the Rudy Gay trade. It wasn't just a bunch of hopeful pro-tankers who felt this way, but the entire NBA braintrust who expected this to happen. X's and O's are important, but it's not the only thing. Getting your team to play together and go above and beyond what they're capable of cannot be overlooked.

Look, I'm not saying Casey should be the guy standing on the sidelines when this team is a contender. But we're at least 2+ years away from that. Why bring in an interim coach to do it for 2-3 years and then replace again? Until we start to truly underperform, I'm willing to deal with a few poorly drawn plays. How do you know that Lowry doesn't like playing for Casey? DeRozan? Amir? Valanciunas? When you have a group of individuals that are playing above expectations and solid team basketball, and kick out their leader, you run the risk of losing everything. I don't see why you risk this at this stage.

Come back to me in 2016 when we have our Kevin Durant (or whoever we end up getting at SF/PF) and we STILL can't get out of the 1st round. That's when you talk about getting a better coach.

[stooley]

Forgive the douchebaggery in this post, but I've been calling this one for months. I need some kind of self congratulations. So Fuck. Yeah. I've figuratively put a lot of god damn money on this move lol. Good job stooley, good job.

We literally have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, in the locker room and at practice. We are at such a massive disadvantage in judging whether or not Casey is a good coach.

Maybe Casey's been preaching help rotations for two months, non stop, and when Ross misses a rotation, that matters more to him than other mistakes. Not all mistakes are made equal with regards to being benched. If Ross/JV screw something up that's really important to Casey's schemes, they're more likely to get the hook than if they made a mistake somewhere else. That's just one example of how our "analyses" really only show 50% of the story, which can be really misleading.

So, we can agree that it's pretty much impossible for us to judge the vast majority of Casey's decisions. To extend that train of thought, this should lead us to put more belief in the results achieved while under Casey.

Further, Masai DOES have access to that information which we lack, and he's made our decision for us.

I was really worried this team played just well enough that we "had" to keep Casey. My worries came true.

I think MU actually decided it was a smart move. Is that possible? It seems like it.

For the sake of my own mental well-being + general quality of life, I'm going to choose to believe that Masai knows what he's doing.

He definitely knows a lot better than any of us, especially since coaching is such a delicate job. What goes on behind the scenes is more important than anything that we can measure.

Great move By MU

And for those of you bitching about it, think how the players feel when they get a new coach like every 2 or 3 season, They HATE it.

Coaching carousels are a nightmare. Not only do players hate it, it's actually bad for the team's and the young players' development.

Step 1. Have to admire the way it was done. Season done, contract signed the next day. No mixed messages. No confusion. A good message to Lowry. A good message to everyone. I can see how you might not like it but for anyone who thinks he deserves to not get a renewal, tell me what the next steps are.

This is also good for JV, Ross and DD. They can enter the offseason with some stability. They'll be able to develop proper training regimens and stay focused on what matters. Really, really good move to get that out of the way quickly.

At this point, I'm resigning myself to the fact that we're probably going to seeing multiple tactical blunders over the next few years, while assuming that there must be many other less tangible (but no less important) things that he's excellent at.

I think this is probably the case. Hopefully Nick Nurse can do his thing and improve the play calling. I think the weird rotations had a lot to do with player execution and lack of personnel.

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.

There were a lot of shitty first year hires too, don't forget. There's inherently some risk in hiring a new coach. No matter how good the GM is, he can't look at a resume, do an interview and know 100% whether the hire will work out or not. Mo Cheeks was hired by Phil Jackson. D'Oh.

Statements like this drive me nuts.

How many Hawks games did you watch this year? How many Suns games?

Both coaches you just named had rosters built with a very specific play style in mind and those coaches did a great job of carrying them out. But so did Casey.

To me the difference is this:

Budenholzer comes out smelling like roses because his roster had a great set of match ups against his first round opponent, leading to a bit of a surprise run against a lethargic Pacers team that continues to be all over the map. But were you watching those games and monitoring substitution patterns, play calling, etc like you were with Casey? Something tells me you weren't. So how can you judge him?

Hornachek didn't have to manage a first round playoff series. If the Raps and Suns had have swapped conferences and the Raps had finished the regular season just outside of the playoffs but shown the same dramatic improvement, would this even be up for discussion?

Again, the grass is always greener until you find yourself standing on it and realize it's just about the same colour wherever you are.

Really good point. Really good point.

[Nilanka]

I'm luke warm about the decision, but I 100% see the advantage such stability provides to the players.

Like others have mentioned, we assume that players will work on their weaknesses over the offseason, yet we don't have that same assumption for coaches. I'm fairly certain Casey will have a highlight reel of situational "mistakes" handed to him to study during the summer.

It'll be nice going into training camp with familiar faces, and familiar schemes. The team can simply pickup where they left off in May, rather than starting from scratch and needing the first 20 games of the season to figure things out.

And lastly, let's remember that there is no perfect coach. Whether is Sloan, Karl, Van Gunday, Fratello, etc., they all have their strengths and weaknesses. If the team starts losing, it wouldn't have mattered who was running the show.....we would rip him a new one.

Take away the 6-12 start, and we're a 50+ win team. That's pretty damn impressive. Casey's earned the right to continue what he built.

[rocwell]

“I thank Tim (Leiweke) and Masai for providing me and my staff the platform this season to coach and now to continue the process of developing this young team,” said Casey. “We have taken some big steps toward our goal of installing a culture and a defensive mindset.

“At the same time we realize the challenge ahead in order to complete our quest to build a championship program for the best fans in the NBA!”

raptors.com

[bobo12]

Not a huge Casey fan, but I trust Masai knows what he's doing!

[rocwell]

Casey and Ujiri's press conf. LIVE at 11am: http://www.nba.com/raptors/raptorslive

[Joey]

Casey and Ujiri's press conf. LIVE at 11am: http://www.nba.com/raptors/raptorslive

Your booty-clap makes me uncomfortable.

[thead]

Masai Ujiri/Dwayne Casey Press Conference 11am EST

http://www.nba.com/raptors/raptorslive

[rocwell]

Your booty-clap makes me uncomfortable.

Okay, boss

[stooley]

I'd add: people assuming that Casey's rotations are bad, and his end of game play calling are really assuming the worst.

The reality is, Casey isn't perfect. But I'd say all his criticisms are probably only half-true.

[Joey]

Okay, boss

Oh I wasn't saying to change it.. just that it made me uncomfortable. That was some SERIOUS clap. LOL

[rocwell]

no quick, crazy decisions this year. Masai says.

"We plan on growing as a team. I'm not going to make any crazy quick fix decisions."

[stooley]

no quick, crazy decisions this year. Masai says.

good - we're still developing players and figuring out who we are. maybe next year, we're under no urgency right now.

BC would sign Deng.

[Kuh]

I don't know if there is any way to pull this off given the personalities involved ... but what has been going through my mind has been to poach away the assistant offensive coach from the Portland Trailblazers, who everyone has to admit has one of the NBA's top offenses.

As a head coach he was also known for his strong X's and O's in late game play calls. And he has a strong attachment to both Canada and the Raptors.

The question is will he, and we, accept him as an assistant coach after formerly being a head coach here?

I refer of course to Jay Triano.