Dwane Casey – does Raptors coach deserve more credit?

Nobody talks about the Raptors’ Dwane Casey as one of the NBA’s best coaches. Does he even warrant consideration?

Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated has published an excellent post discussing the success of Brad Stevens, the bench boss of the Boston Celtics. There’s a lot to like about Stevens, who indisputably deserves much credit for the rebuilding of the green team since they cratered a few years ago. Many teams fall down and never seem to get back up. Minnesota and Sacramento will end this season out of the playoffs – that’s 13 years in a row for the T’Wolves, and 10 for the Kings.

One thing Stevens appears to be managing is his ego; he deflects the credit for the Boston resurgence to his players. When you start to think you’re a genius, it’s all over.

Here’s a critical thought I want to expand upon, while mulling the record of Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey: “The two best coaches in the sport [Editor’s note: Sharp’s other “best coach” is Greg Popovich, which is hard to argue with] are better than anyone at understanding [every player’s] weaknesses, and hiding them. When you do that, the whole team looks better. That’s what great coaching is.”

If we accept the premise that a great coach must be able to hide weaknesses, how does Casey fare? Let’s consider defense first. Who’s the worst defender among our core group? I’m going to offer up DeMar DeRozan as my anti-candidate. When was the last time DD covered James Harden from the opening tip? Um, never…that thankless assignment went to Norman Powell.

A smart coach knows which side of the ball each player is better at. Casey knows he’s got to mask DD on defense, because he’s too important to the Raptors offense to play fewer than 36 minutes. And we don’t want DD in foul trouble, either. Solution: DeMar, don’t follow your man if he dribbles into the key. Calling “help” may be considered unmanly, but too bad. Box out, grab some weak-side rebounds, and don’t reach in. We need you on the floor.

By contrast, Kyle Lowry is the only Raptor I’d consider markedly above average both ways. He leads the NBA in steals, grab a ton of rebounds for a point guard, and still gets major points. He doesn’t need any masking.

For an extreme example, there’s Bismack Biyombo, whose value is overwhelmingly on the defensive side. He’s a better defender than our starting centre, Jonas Valanciunas, but doesn’t have the size or offensive skills to push aside JV. There are no offensive plays called for Biz, but he can and does present at the hoop for dump-off passes.

DeMar has a weakness on offense, that being poor shooting from distance, combined with a proclivity for taking mid-range jump shots. Stats geeks cringe when those go up, as scoring efficiency goes down. This season, DeMar’s average of 32.8% from beyond the arc is a career high. I think Casey is urging him to put up open-look (i.e., uncontested) 3-balls only, which is going to help anyone’s results.

I can’t do justice to coaching issues in a 500-word post, so watch for more. I’m going to conclude this one with a check mark for Dwane Casey. I think he’s competent at recognizing his players’ limitations, and at devising tactics to cope with them.