Toronto Raptors: Should Dwane Casey Still Be The Coach Of The Raptors?

On Monday, April 22 in a news conference at The Air Canada Centre, general manager Bryan Colangelo proclaimed that head coach Dwane Casey will return for his third season in 2013-14, if the decision is his to make.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the team’s ownership group, holds an option on Colangelo’s contract for next season that has not yet been exercised.

Dwane Casey is likely to return as coach of the Toronto Raptors in 2013-14. (NBA.com photo)

Presumably an announcement will be made in the next couple weeks and I suspect Colangelo will be retained for three more years. Only then will we find out if Colangelo truly believes that Casey is the right leader to guide the Raptors back to the playoffs.

Both are likely to remain with the organization when the dust settles, so the question becomes whether Casey should still be the coach of the Raptors.

Casey was asked to assess his performance at the above-mentioned meeting with the press.

To help decide the best course of action, here is an overview of Casey’s credentials.

Previous experience: Casey began his NBA coaching career with an 11-year stint as an assistant with the Seattle SuperSonics, beginning in 1994-95. He served alongside head coaches George Karl (1994-98), Paul Westphal (1998-2001), and Nate McMillan (2001-05), highlighted by a trip to the NBA Finals in his second season with the team.

During McMillan’s tenure with Seattle, Casey’s actual role was associate head coach.

In July 2005, the Minnesota Timberwolves were in need of a head coach and hired Casey to fill the role. Casey lasted less than two seasons with the team, compiling a record of 53-69.

However, at the time of Casey’s firing on Jan. 23, 2007, the Timberwolves were 20-20 and within reach of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. The criticism of Casey had to do with inconsistency, player rotations and the team’s record in close games, but those were problems that arose more in his first year on sidelines in Minnesota.

In the 2008-09 season, Casey joined the Dallas Mavericks as an assistant to Rick Carlisle. After the team won the 2011 NBA Finals, Casey was largely credited for coordinating the Mavericks’ defensive system and this was the catalyst for his hiring in Toronto prior to the 2011-12 campaign.

Time in Toronto: In two seasons under Casey, the Raptors have posted a record of 57-91 for a winning percentage of .385. But Casey inherited a team that struggled defensively the season prior to his arrival, finishing last in the NBA with a defensive rating of 112.7–a stat that measures points allowed per 100 possessions.

The team improved under Casey, ranking 14th last season (104.6), but slid to 17th overall in 2012-13 with a rating of 107.5.

With a focus on improving defensively, the Raptors showed little promise at the other end of the court, ranking 29th with an offensive rating of 100.8 points per 100 possessions. However, the team showed remarkable improvement in that category this season, jumping to 14th with a rating of 105.9.

The downside: Some of the criticism that Casey received for his time with the Timberwolves is also applicable to how things have gone in Toronto.

Point guard Kyle Lowry battled injuries early in the season. (Photo Credit: Mark Runyon, basketballschedule.net)

Player rotations, which often become predictable to fans and players alike, never reached the level of normalcy required for good team chemistry. The team did not have much luck on the road, winning just 13 of 41 games, and the Raptors were a horrendous 2-35 when surrendering 100-plus points.

After the Raptors started 4-16 this season, Colangelo publicly stated that the team’s play was embarrassing and subtly pointed a finger at the coach by saying the struggles were not due to a talent issue.

As evidenced by the season-ending news conference, Colangelo and Casey have settled their differences, at least for the public eye.

Positive signs: The Raptors bottomed out in mid-December when they returned home from a West Coast swing having lost all six games and wearing an overall record of 4-19. It would have been easy to pack it in at that point, but Casey would not let the team quit and they managed to go 30-29 the rest of the way.

The team’s struggles early on, including Casey’s game management, were due somewhat to injuries to key players, forcing the coach to use awkward player combinations and patterns out of necessity.

Further in-season adjustment was required when Colangelo shook up the roster in late January with a trade that shipped out point guard Jose Calderon and brought in Rudy Gay, an athletic forward.

Jonas Valanciunas was drafted fifth overall by the Raptors in 2011. (Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com)

As the season wore on and a playoff spot fell out of reach, Casey turned his attention squarely to the development of rookie center Jonas Valaciunas. And this may be the bright spot for Casey and the Raptors this season.

Valanciunas finished the season strong, when he took advantage of increased playing time to average 14.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks in 31.6 minutes per contest in April.

Along with Gay, DeMar DeRozan and Amir Johnson, Valanciunas is part of a young and promising core group of players on which the Raptors success relies.

The verdict: Casey has one year remaining on his deal and he has earned the right to coach the Raptors for at least one more season. There is something to be said for consistency in the front office, on the sidelines and obviously on the court.

The Raptors’ best chance to end their five-year playoff drought in 2013-14 may be to stay the course and hope that all personnel, including the coach, improve just a little bit next season.