Masai isn’t wasting time: Dwane Casey pays price for Raptors disappointment
By Brian Boake
The Raptors made a decision which was both shocking and entirely expected, if that’s possible. Masai Ujiri fired Dwane Casey – should he have?
The Toronto Raptors have taken the first of what I predict will be many changes this off-season. Masai Ujiri made official this morning what many of us here at the Rapture, and I’m sure a bunch of you out there in Readerland, had been anticipating. Coach Dwane Casey has been relieved of his duties.
My original headline had ended with the word “failure”, but I decided that was misleading. How in the world could a coach who averaged 52.6 wins in the last 5 seasons be called a failure? So that word doesn’t fit…but “disappointment” does. You can’t survive in pro sports without winning in the playoffs eventually, which never happened with Dwane at the helm. His playoffs won-lost count is 21-30, and that wrong-end-up record proved too much for Masai to ignore.
The coach gets dumped first
Certain lines in sports are trotted out at times like this, and here’s one of them: “The GM can’t fire all the players, but he can fire the coach.” It’s relatively easy for Masai to lower the boom on Casey because their relationship always resembled a shotgun marriage. Dwane was a holdover from the Bryan Colangelo era, which quickly ended when Tim Leiweke came to town as newly minted head of Maple Leaf Sports and Enterntainment (MLSE). Tim (who turned out to be a Yankee carpetbagger, but that’s a story for another time) brought Ujiri back to Toronto after quickly souring on Colangelo. Even though Masai could have dumped Dwane for a coach of his own choosing, he decided not to, and his faith in the incumbent was rewarded.
However, even Masai’s patience has limits.
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I don’t think the series with Cleveland saw Dwane at his best. For instance, he waited too long to bench Serge Ibaka, when the Washington series provided glaring evidence that our starting power forward wasn’t crashing the boards or shooting well. Jonas Valanciunas didn’t get nearly enough burn against the Cavs, even though he was scoring almost at will when he got the ball. Asking C.J. Miles to cover Kevin Love was folly.
Come on Brian – was canning Dwane a mistake or not?
Casey’s failure was tactical, not strategic. He proved he could move with the times, as this season’s Raptors caught up with the rest of the NBA offensively, and rose to the East’s #1 seed as a consequence. However, his Xs and Os came up short when they were most needed.
Dwane Casey was a superb coach for the Raptors. His legacy is secure. But on balance, I agree with Masai’s decision. A new voice is needed.