TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors are going to be well represented at All-Star weekend in Los Angeles.
DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry were already headed there and now they’ll be joined by Raptors head coach Dwane Casey.
They deserve it and Casey deserves it.
With their 123-111 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night at the Air Canada Centre Toronto clinched second-place in the East in advance of the Feb. 2 cutoff to select the coaches for the league’s extravaganza on Feb. 18. By rule, the coach of the first-place team in each conference earns the all-star nod but the same coach can’t coach at all-star in consecutive years.
Since the Boston Celtics’ Brad Stevens was the Eastern Conference representative a year ago, Casey and his staff get the honour — the first time in Raptors history the franchise has had their head coach earn his way to all-star weekend, just another in a long list of firsts that Casey has accomplished in seven years in Toronto. He got a post-game shower too — just some water, it turns out — but recognition from his players for a job well done.
“It’s been about three years that we’ve had a chance to do it and we finally did it so it’s pretty special,” said Lowry, who has butted heads with Casey as much as anyone, but he has never lost respect for him. “For a guy that’s come from where he’s come from, works so hard, and for a team that was supposed to blow it up a couple years ago and now we’re here and getting a [coach] in there that works so hard and believes in what we do with a passion. It’s pretty special for us and him.”
In a perfect world the Raptors would strip away the asterisk. Their largely wire-to-wire win over the Lakers improved Toronto to 33-15 and left them one game behind the Celtics for first in the East. Boston has one game left on their west-coast road trip and has a travel-heavy schedule for the second half of the season. The Raptors’ visit from the Lakers was their second in a stretch of seven in eight at the ACC where they are now 18-4.
The Raptors’ best basketball should be ahead of them. Casey will make sure his club keeps their foot on the gas. His public declaration of having his club gun for Boston and the first seed a way of creating some urgency around them in dog days of the season.
It’s smart coaching, which he probably doesn’t get enough credit for.
By habit, Casey tried to downplay the all-star honour. He was an assistant to George Karl twice at all-star weekend in 1994 and 1996 when they were with the Seattle SuperSonics.
“I’ve done it before, a couple of times,” said earlier. “It’s great, it’s a tribute to our coaches and our staff, our organization, but it’s not something I sit around and dream about or worry about. I’d much rather be on the beach somewhere and relax a little bit.”
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Casey’s ‘no big deal’ treatment rings a bit hollow. His road to being an all-star head coach has been a long and winding one, with perseverance and consistency as its hallmark. A moment in the spotlight might do him more good than a weekend in the sun.
Besides, it’s hard to imagine Casey relaxing. Those that travel on the Raptors’ charter say they’ve never seen the soon-to-be 61-year-old take a nap on all those long flights.
But point out that having him represent the Raptors and coach Team LeBron at all-star weekend means three days on one of the brightest stages in basketball to tell the Raptors’ story and Casey’s mood brightens.
“I’ve done it before so I understand the hectic weekend that it’s going to be for the organization to give what we’re trying to do here in Toronto something special to talk about for a weekend,” said Casey. “To put a light on our program and see what we’re doing I think is the most important thing.”
If you want to get Casey riled up about it ask him about who’s not going to Los Angeles with him. He calls it “shocking” and “mind-blowing” that none of the Raptors’ young role players – OG Anunoby, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl – were invited to participate in the Rising Stars game for first and second-year players, which would have expanded the Raptors’ presence in L.A. considerably.
The Lakers have three representatives in the game – Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball. Ball has been nursing a sore knee so he was out of the lineup Sunday, making for a start for Brampton’s own Tyler Ennis who struggled somewhat, going 1-of-4 without an assist in 17 minutes.
But the rest of the Lakers’ youth brigade were no better. Kuzma finished with seven points on nine shots and Ingram was held to 4-of-14 shooting by Anunoby. The Lakers youngsters might have some bigger numbers or a higher profile, but the Raptors’ group – sparked by 25 points off the bench from VanVleet on Sunday – proved again that they can contribute to winning.
Casey deserves credit for that. It would be easier for him to play a tight rotation and stick with what has worked the past four years or complain about a lack of veteran depth. But he’s been given a mandate to develop players and win simultaneously and he’s taken it seriously.
At times he’s been overlooked in his role in building the Raptors into one of the NBA’s most consistent teams, and fairly or not, it’s popular to question his in-game management or crunch-time play calling.
The latest chance came after Friday’s loss as the Raptors’ struggles in the clutch surfaced again, but Casey isn’t ducking it. He’s limited to an extent by personnel – he doesn’t have enough shooters to surround DeRozan in key moments, and DeRozan’s instinct remains to score – but Casey continues to look for solutions with an eye towards the playoffs.
“We’ve changed a lot,” he said after reflecting on the Jazz loss and other close calls the Raptors have suffered from this season. “Our defence, our offensive approach, but we’re still breaking some habits in the last five minutes, last three minutes of the game.
“We want the ball in our best players’ hands but have different ways of getting it in their hands that are not as predictable,” he said. “That’s something we’re still working on, being creative and different as far as getting the ball to Kyle and DeMar. Some of it is on our young guys to take the reins … you run the show. Those are the things we’re coming to and getting to.”
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Casey’s been given the time to build a frame around the bigger picture, but he’s done it well. As always as the Raptors mature into steady excellence, the measure of their success – and Casey’s – will be how they perform in the post-season, but overlooking Casey’s role in putting Toronto on their current trajectory would be a mistake.
Since taking over from Jay Triano for the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season his teams have featured year-over-year improvement; the arrival of DeRozan and Lowry as all-stars; the integration of the Raptors’ youth-infused bench, and this season supervising the Raptors’ transition to a more ‘modern’ tactical approach defensively and offensively.
It hasn’t come without hiccups but it’s an impressive body of work and should earn Casey some strong consideration as a coach-of-the-year candidate this year, though he’s not holding his breath or relying on outside opinion.
“The numbers tell the story, whether it’s offence, defence or wins or whatever. That’s what you rely on,” he said. “Not recognition or what they say in the comments section or the Twitter world. It’s what you do, it’s what you put on the table,” he said. “That’s what’s important to myself, our staff, our organization. Winning.”
His players are happy for him in their own way. Because the NBA has changed the all-star game format from East vs. West to a pick-up game style draft with LeBron James and Steph Curry as captains, both Lowry and DeRozan will be playing against their coach on Team Curry while Casey coaches Team LeBron.
“I’m going to talk trash to him for sure,” said DeRozan, who has been with Casey for eight of his nine years in the NBA. “That’s why I want him to be in there, so I can talk trash to him on the sideline and everything.”
Casey welcomes it:
“We’ll go right at him if that’s the case,” said Casey, grinning at the possibility of designing sets to attack DeRozan, a four-time all-star but an occasional defender by reputation.
But DeRozan is pleased Casey is burnishing his reputation.
“It was one of my goals ever since I got my first all-star,” said DeRozan. “You want to look over there and see your coach coaching.”
But recognizing Casey’s success has its limits. There will be no celebratory Rolex from DeRozan:
“No, he already got a Rolex,” said DeRozan. “I seen one on him.”
Casey’s coaching has changed with the times and this edition of the Raptors — while still a work in progress — is showing evidence of it. As an example, he’s long encouraged Jonas Valanciunas to work on and take three-pointers — he made two triples on Friday night and another early in the first quarter Sunday. As teams grudgingly honour his newfound range Valanciunas is adjusting.
Later in the first quarter against the Lakers he put it on the floor, drove the paint and pitched out to Lowry for a triple. These sequences from Valanciunas were inconceivable a year ago, but Casey has encouraged Valanciunas to expand his game, just as he’s leaned on DeRozan to distribute the ball more and he’s made and kept the peace with Lowry. He’s taken the Raptors to heights they’ve never reached before.
I’m sure Casey is being sincere when he says he would love some time on a beach somewhere come all-star weekend but he’s headed to Los Angeles on merit, part of a contingent that can tell the Raptors’ story to a league that rarely hears it.
Casey’s tale deserves to be told as well. Besides, they have beaches in L.A. too, don’t they?
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