Casey’s work behind success of Raptors
Coach changed culture of moribund team after becoming its bench boss in 2011
When Dwane Casey agreed to leave the Dallas Mavericks for one of the league’s sadsack franchises in Toronto only days after finally winning an NBA championship back in the summer of 2011, he knew he was taking on an immense challenge.
What Casey — or anyone else for that matter — did not know, was that he’d still be at the helm in Toronto all these years later, having played a considerable role in turning around a profitable, but rarely competitive franchise, into a beacon of strength and a consistent, Eastern Conference power.
Casey coached his 500th game with the club on Sunday in Sacramento. He is easily the best head coach in team history, well in front of anybody else in terms of wins, winning percentage and playoff appearances and victories.
When Casey, a basketball lifer who helped design the Dallas defence that neutralized LeBron James and the Miami Heat in that 2011 final, ventured north of the border, Toronto was the only active franchise without a 50-win season to its credit, had missed the post-season for three straight years, had never won a seven-game playoff series and was perhaps best known in hoops circles as the franchise that had lost headliners Damon Stoudamire, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Chris Bosh. The previous two editions of the Raptors had surrendered 113 points per 100 possessions, truly ghastly marks considering that era came before the current three-point explosion.
Toronto had long been viewed as a nightly punching bag, an ill-configured group to pad stats against.
His top scoring option was Andrea Bargnani and his best prospect was a raw DeMar DeRozan who showed few signs at the time that he would grow into one of the more fundamentally sound players around. Aaron Gray and Jamaal Magloire manned the middle and Jonas Valanciunas was a year from leaving Lithuania for the NBA.
The 2011-12 season was a lockoutshortened campaign. Casey’s first game was on Boxing Day, in snowy Cleveland. Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson made their Cleveland debuts that day. The end result was a 104-96 victory for the Raptors.
Casey says he only has a vague recollection of that first one, but he is proud of the work he has done.
Few sporting cliches arise as commonly as the concept of changing the culture. Still, it was Job 1 for Casey and his staff (a group that has changed over the years both because of management decisions and due to coaches wanting to go elsewhere) and there definitely is a completely different aura around the Raptors organization nowadays.
Seasons of 48, 49, 51 and 56 wins, including a trip to the conference finals will do that.
Heading into Monday’s late game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Toronto was surrendering only 103.1 points per 100 possessions, good for ninth in the NBA, while scoring a whopping 111.1 per 100, which trails only powerhouses Golden State and Houston.
Only five teams have won more games so far this season, even though the Raptors schedule has been one of the five most challenging, per various strength of schedule rankings.
“It doesn’t (feel like 500 games, but) it’s been a good journey,” Casey said, cracking the faintest of smiles.
“Getting the program to where it is today from where it was is something I take pride in, and I know our staff takes pride in.”
Now a perennial all-star, DeRozan is the only player remaining from the first Casey-led Raptors squad (Magloire is now on the coaching staff).
When DeRozan speaks about his longtime bench boss, he does so with a clear reverence for the well-respected Kentucky native.
“It’s been a long, long, long journey. It’s a testament to him sticking to all of his guns and understanding his principles that he came in here (with),” DeRozan said.
“Look at him now. He holds the record for wins and games coached, everything, you’ve got to give him credit for that.”
It hasn’t always been easy. Casey has been on the firing line, there have been playoff disappointments. But yet, the success far outweigh the failures.
He has been hard on Valanciunas at times in an effort to help the big man adapt to the changing game, and often yanks him out of games when he can’t keep up, but clearly there are no hard feelings.
“Always you face some ups and downs, some bumps, some downhills, but, if you are able to get back and if you are able to stay strong over those bumps, you are real then,” Valanciunas said of Casey’s work as head coach. “He knows what he’s doing. He’s a great dude, a great guy. He’s humble, he’s trying to win, that’s all that matters.”
Kyle Lowry has butted heads with Casey over the years, but there is clear, mutual respect.
“I don’t think our coach is ever happy, honestly,” Lowry said after Casey had picked out some things he didn’t like about Sunday’s win at Sacramento.
“But that’s the one thing about our coach, he’s hard on us, and he’s tough on us. But we know that he wants us to be a championship-calibre team, and that’s what we push for, and that’s why we respond to him so well.”