Raptors: Option year leaving coach spoiled for choice
MILWAUKEE— The options available to Dwane Casey are many and he’s never sure one night to the next which one he will take.
It’s fun and stressful managing personnel at the end of close NBA games, but Casey having choices mitigates the difficulty a little bit.
There are constants — the all-star backcourt of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry will be on the floor every time a close game goes down to the wire — but beyond that the Raptors coach is never sure in the morning who he’ll call on later that night. “It’s going to be fluid,” Casey said. The best part about finding a gameclosing group is that there are several ways Casey can go: He can play three guards and use Fred VanVleet or Delon Wright with Lowry and DeRozan; use VanVleet when the Raptors need some toughness and threepoint shooting; or Wright when they need some offensive creativity and defensive length.
“The other night (Monday) it was Fred. Before that it was Delon,” Casey said. “How well guys are playing in those situations throughout the flow of the game will determine that.
“Fred brings you one element of toughness, physicality. I thought he was a good matchup the other night. And then there’s nights when Delon comes in, his creativity with the basketball, his passing out of situations brings another.”
Casey can also go with Serge Ibaka for rim protection and shot-blocking, combining him with Jonas Valanciunas if there’s a need for size, with Jakob Poeltl for a bit more quickness, with C.J. Miles if there’s a need for shooting, and even with Pascal Siakam if athleticism is needed.
It’s like one from Column A and one from Column B and it changes night to night.
“There’s going to be nights when we need that defensive group in there, and there’s going to be nights when we need to add a scorer in there just to space the floor (because) teams are just not going to let Kyle and DeMar come down and perform at the end of the game,” the coach said.
“OG (Anunoby) is going to grow into the fact you can throw the ball to him and go make a play, because he does have good passing skills. That position, those spots — other than Kyle, DeMar (and) maybe Serge — are probably going to be fluid.”
Casey has mainly flipped between VanVleet and Wright in the backcourt, and Poeltl and Valanciunas with Ibaka in the frontcourt.
Those groups have given the team its best defensive look, but with the NBA becoming far more high-powered offensively, scoring must always be on the coach’s mind. He hasn’t yet seen fit to use Miles except in offence-defence, possession-by-possession substitutions, but that might come. And who knows, if Norm Powell finds his way back into the rotation he’s another scorer to add to the list.
“At the end of the day, you still got to be a scorer,” Casey said. “We’ve had some games where it’s been, what, 14, 13, 16 whatever (points) in the fourth quarter. We still have to be able to score when the game is on the line.”
The constants, of course, are DeRozan and Lowry, who are going to be instrumental in whatever the Raptors do in the final minutes of close games. They are going to get the majority of the shots and nearly all the responsibility, but at least now Casey has options to throw different looks at opponents and also react to what other teams do.
It’s a new phenomenon for Toronto and one that will evolve as the season goes on. Casey may end up with a consistent finishing group that gives him scoring punch and a defensive presence, but for now he goes into each game knowing he’s got all kinds of options. “It’s great,” he said.