Dwane Casey is a creature of habit.
Since the start of last season, Casey has only changed his starting five a handful of times.
The only time he’s shaken things up by choice is when Terrence Ross was recently sent to the bench. Besides that move, the only changes he has made to his starting unit was when Rudy Gay was traded or injuries have forced his hand.
Casey isn’t a coach who likes to tinker with his line-up depending on the team he is facing or to light a fire under a slumping player.
The closest Casey has got to playing with his starting five is while DeMar DeRozan was injured this season and he gave Greivis Vasquez, James Johnson and Landry Fields opportunities to lock in a starting spot. But that was just trying to find a temporary solution to missing an all-star player for a relatively short period of time. None of those players had a legit chance to steal DeRozan’s spot in the starting unit.
So all of this talk of a shakeup to the starting line-up that would see Patrick Patterson replace an injured and noticeably hobbled Amir Johnson will likely fall on deaf ears. Casey is a creature of habit and he often talks about players “staying in their lanes” and likes to have clear and defined roles. Shaking up the starting unit would mess with that continuity and familiarity players have with each other.
It’s a shame because Patterson has been a bright spot for Toronto and would allow for better balance on the starting five.
It would also result in Greivis Vasquez returning to his role coming off the bench and see James Johnson start.
The idea of a starting five of Patterson, James Johnson, Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas is something that has plenty of fans salivating.
Amir Johnson has long been the heart of this team, but it’s clear he’s hurting this season. Most home games I’ve walked into the locker room to see him icing his feet while his left shoulder has been wrapped in ice. Then, after dealing with us media grunts, he’ll limp to the showers.
The stats back this up as he’s averaging the lowest minutes (26.6), rebounding (5.7) and scoring average (9.9) he has over the past three seasons.
It was 11 seconds into the game against the Sacramento Kings and Amir Johnson was already wincing and shaking out his left shoulder. He only managed to play 21 minutes that game.
Meanwhile Patterson has been a revelation while playing with Toronto’s other starters.
According to NBA.com, some of Toronto’s best five-man units feature Patrick Patterson.
The group of DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, Patrick Patterson, Jonas Valanciunas, and Greivis Vasquez, is Toronto’s best unit with a +7 rating over the last 15 games.
The second best unit is a group of DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, Patrick Patterson, Amir Johnson, and Greivis Vasquez, with a score of +2.4 over that same stretch of games.
Likewise, James Johnson was supposed to be the answer against bigger wings, but Casey won’t tinker with playing rotations based on his opponent from game-to-game. With Ross moving to the bench and Vasquez shifting to the starting unit, the ripples have cost James Johnson his playing time.
You can complain all you want, but Casey’s coaching style has resulted in Toronto getting off to the best start in the history of the franchise and winning as many games by the all-star break than they have won in 11 of their first 20 seasons.
Toronto’s current winning percentage of 67% is much higher than their current all-time best season from last year of 58%.
Again, another season with Casey at the helm.
Maybe it’s time to give Casey more credit for sticking with what’s working and not tinkering too much.
