‘Break’ served Joseph well
Raptors guard responds to Casey’s message
MINNEAPOLIS• It must have been a few tough days for the lone Canadian on Dwane Casey’s Toronto Raptors’ roster.
Cory Joseph first saw his minutes take a hit in the loss in Orlando on Friday when Fred VanVleet was the first point guard off the bench behind starter Kyle Lowry.
The following game in Brooklyn, it got even more puzzling as Joseph experienced the first coach’s DNP of his young Raptors tenure as VanVleet handled all the backup minutes.
But Monday night, with the Los Angeles Clippers visiting, the rotation returned to normal and Joseph was right back to where he has been all season in terms of minutes.
In between those games, Joseph addressed the media following a practice in New York, maintaining his teamfirst attitude and trying to downplay any of his own disappointment in not playing.
There was one area, though, where Joseph could not mask his disappointment and that was over Casey’s use of the word “mental break” as his justification for giving Joseph this middle of the season “rest.”
Joseph adamantly denied any need for a “mental break” while insisting he was fine with whatever decision the Raptors’ head coach made.
He was in the spotlight again Monday after t he game, explaining to inquiring minds wanting to know if all was right again with the native of Pickering, Ont.
Joseph, though, is not a guy who enjoys the spotlight. He prefers to let his game do the talking for him and up until just recently, that was enough.
Casey can call what he gave Joseph a rest or a mental break, but the actual best description is a wake-up call and the early returns suggest the strategy has paid off.
Joseph’s numbers were slipping. Not his offensive numbers, which will never be the measure of the success of his game, but the defensive numbers when he is on the court.
Joseph is a defence- first guy, a player who earns his minutes by helping make things difficult for the opposition to score.
He’s quick and agile and just determined enough to get in the way of opponents and hold down scorers.
For whatever reason, that has not been the case this season. Casey has been critical of his pick- and- roll defence, his NBA calling card until this season. When talking about the need for improvement in that area didn’t bring about the anticipated corrections, Casey played the only card a coach can play in a league ruled by players. He cut his playing time.
Nothing motivates a player like not playing when he feels he should be playing.
Casey would not get into the particulars of why Joseph’s effectiveness had fallen off, even suggesting the why didn’t matter. All he wanted was change and Monday night he got it.
Joseph’s level of physicality picked up and with it, so did his effectiveness.
Plus- minus is a sometimes misleading stat to measure a single player’s effectiveness, but with Joseph it is often telltale. If he’s on the positive side of the measurement, chances are he has had an effective night. You can’t say that about every player in the l eague but when Joseph is on, whether he is scoring or not, he’s hardly ever on the negative side of the measurement. That’s how impactful his defence is.
Monday against the Clippers, Joseph was back on the right side of that statistic. He was getting into people and committing the odd foul but that’s his game, that is what has to be his game.
Casey downplayed the entire ordeal after the win over the Clippers.
“Never worried about Cory for one second,” Casey said. “A lot was made to do about nothing. He’s what we’re about, his hard play and just wanted to give him some rest. I used the word ‘mental’ and I shouldn’t have used that. He just needed some rest like Kyle and DeMar (DeRozan) and like Pat’s ( Patrick Patterson) getting some rest. Guys go through that; Cory is fine. He’s the heart of our team, he’s our spark off the bench and I never doubted that for one second.”
Standing before the cameras and the recorders after the game, Joseph was asked how he felt about his game.
DeRozan, at his locker directly behind Joseph and listening in, answered for him.
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with his game,” DeRozan said, unasked.
Whether you agree with that or not, DeRozan was doing what all teammates do when criticism comes from the outside. He was sticking up for a teammate.
Casey, though he probably would take back the way he expressed it, got his message across.
The Raptors need Joseph to be that defence-first stopper.
The greater part of the weekend was likely awkward for all involved, but if it gets Joseph back to playing the defence this team has come to expect of him, then it was all worth it.