Coach Casey wants Raptors’ offence running on all cylinders
Expects his players to run the floor hard this season
“I think we’ll be playing a bit more faster this year, playing a bit more uptempo, more shots early in the clock, no one’s going to hesitate taking shots.”
DWANE CASEY ON IMPROVING THE RAPTORS’ GAME THIS SEASON
HALIFAX— For all the significant strides they made defensively last season, the Raptors need to find more ways to create offence this year and coach Dwane Casey knows pretty much where to look. Their legs. Vowing his team will try to speed up the game — while not losing its focus on defence — Casey plans to take the reins off, a most welcome decision to players who like to get out and go.
“No, we’re not going to walk the ball up this year,” said new point guard Kyle Lowry after the team went through its first practice here Tuesday. “That’s what coach is telling me and what we’re implementing so far. “We’re not walking it up.” The Raptors were forced to try and “control tempo” last season — a polite way of saying ‘we’re not good enough to stay in games on the strength of offence alone’ — but coach Casey says those days are gone.
Now, almost every team in the NBA talks early in training camp about getting out and running a bit more, trying to score easy baskets in transition during the first few days of training camp, but Casey has made it his mantra since the middle of the summer.
And he has a specific plan to get that done.
“Specifically, we want to run the floor to try to get layups first; we have to do a better job of running the floor instead of walking it up,” he said.
“Second, we have to utilize the three: Andrea (Bargnani), (Linas) Kleiza, John Lucas, Kyle Lowry; we have some really good three-point shooters, Landry Fields, so that’s where we intend to get our output up.
“(And) DeMar has to do a better job of getting to the rim and finishing instead of settling for one of the toughest shots in basketball, which is the in-between two. By recognizing those things and taking advantage of them, I feel like that’s where we’re going to get our points output up.”
There is no doubt the Raptors need to juice an offence that was 28th in the league in points per game last season, averaging just 90.7 per night. They placed 28th of 30 teams in fast-break points, averaging only 9.6 per game, and they were 23rd in turning turnovers into baskets (15 points per game) and 19th in three-point field goal percentage.
Some of that was unquestionable due to the extend absence of leading scorer Andrea Bargnani and the trickle-down effect it had on the rest of the roster.
It forced Casey to run counter to intuition and put the brakes on the offence.
“We kind of fell into it, but that style of play last year gave us a chance to be in the game, to be honest. I don’t like to play that way but we were short-handed with Andrea out, the thing that helped us staying in the game was controlled tempo.
“Now we’ve got some running wings; if a guy’s tired — and he should be tired if we’re running — we have guys who are fresh to run the lanes. We have enough guys that play that way. To pass it ahead, to attack early. That’s the style of play we want to play.”
The key to that style could be Lowry, the seven-year veteran who has the kind of speed and willingness to attack the basket has been sorely lacking for a few years. While it might not mean him scoring 20 points a night, his ability to run can’t hurt.
“I think we’ll be playing a bit more faster this year, playing a bit more uptempo, more shots early in the clock, no one’s going to hesitate taking shots,” Casey said.