Raptors’ Casey wins award, hopes to avoid a pink slip
Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey received a coach of the year award on Wednesday while his job status was in jeopardy.
In a vote of his peers, Casey was selected as the National Basketball Coaches Association’s coach of the year for 2017-18.
After Casey met with Toronto president Masai Ujiri on Wednesday morning, Ujiri said Casey has been “unbelievable for our organization.” But Ujiri declined to make a firm commitment about Casey’s future, saying he needed more time to evaluate the entire team.
“We're evaluating everything, and that's how we're going to leave it,” Ujiri said. “It's my responsibility as a leader to do that, and we'll go from there.”
It was the first time Casey and Ujiri spoke to reporters since Toronto was swept out of the second round of the playoffs for the second straight season by Cleveland.
“I haven't gone looking for a vote of confidence or anything like that because no one is saying anything different,” Casey said. “Until they do, I'm still here, still fighting, still scratching, still meeting with players. That's all I can do.”
The NBCA balloting also revealed a surprise: Boston coach Brad Stevens — whose Celtics are in the Eastern Conference finals despite the absence of injured stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward — did not receive a single vote from his fellow coaches.
The NBCA introduced its own coaching award last season, based on a vote of the league’s 30 head coaches. The award is separate from the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award, which is voted on by the news media.
Casey was one of eight coaches to receive votes in the balloting. The other seven coaches were Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, the Rockets’ Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers.