Will Raptors’ Dwane Casey ever be viewed as a great coach?

By Brian Boake | Sep 18, 2015

Throughout the team’s history, Toronto Raptors have avoided burning through coaches. Only two men, BrendanMalone and the deservedly forgotten Kevin O’Neill, were granted a single season at the helm, then quietly dropped. Otherwise, even those clearly over their heads, like Darrell Walker in the early days, enjoyed two seasons.

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The most lackadaisical (or laissez-faire, if the judges are in a good mood) coach the Raps ever had, Lenny Wilkens, enjoys the team’s best record in the playoffs. While 8-9 in the postseason certainly won’t win any titles, he remains the last coach to actually win a series.

Dwane Casey was brought in by former GM Bryan Colangelo in 2011. After MLSE top dog Tim Leiweke dusted BC in 2013, and then brought in Masai Ujiri, coach Casey was expected to follow his former leader out the door, as is customary. Instead, Masai retained Dwane and inked him to a contract extension through 2017.

Apr 22, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Former Atlanta Hawks coaches Lenny Wilkens (right) and Mike Fratello (left) honor current Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer (center) with the 2014-15 NBA Coach of the Year Award prior to game two of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Brooklyn Nets at Philips Arena. The Hawks won 96-91. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports

The team has won the Atlantic Division twice in a row, thus qualifying the Raptors for the Best of the Worst award, if there were such a thing. 97 wins in his last two seasons would seem to be reason enough for Casey to get some attention in Coach of the Year balloting. Maybe not – he received one third-place vote last year, after finishing a more than respectable fifth in ’13-’14.

We’ve only had one Coach of the Year in Raptors history, that being Sam Mitchell in ’06-’07. I’m pleased to see him back on a bench, as the interim head man of the Timberwolves.

How do we assess an NBA head coach? Clearly he must win more games than he loses, sooner or later. He has to seize and retain the respect of his players, who must improve, individually and collectively. He needs to retain a sound working relationship with the front office (Tom Thibodeau, the highly regarded Bulls coach, was escorted out of Chicago’s building when terminated; an extreme example of a breakdown with upper management).

Dwane Casey surely ranks as successful in all of those elements, but still can’t get no respect. The obvious reason: playoff failure.

Last season, the Raptors fell from grace defensively, and their high-powered offense couldn’t make up the gap. Masai has spent the summer finding Dwane’s kind of players, so Coach can rediscover the team’s defensive identity. Masai’s work isn’t done, as the team will enter training camp with only a vague idea of who is going to start at power forward. But otherwise the roster is solid, with 10 players boasting considerable NBA experience.

This is Dwane Casey’s make-or-break season. Expectations are high, and a failure to deliver will have severe consequences. The Raptors must bring home another Atlantic division pennant, and win at least two playoff rounds. Otherwise, I believe Masai will take Dwane to the woodshed.

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