Getting swept by the Washington Wizards isn’t how the players, coaching staff, front office or fans saw this season ending.
The worst may still be to come if the exit interviews from Monday are any indication.
Kyle Lowry kicked things off with a bang by refusing to give Dwane Casey a vote of confidence.
“I respect Casey as a man,” Lowry deadpanned. “He’s a hell of a guy. At the end of the day, like I said, it’s not my choice, not my decision. At the end of the day, yeah, if he’s the coach, I’m a player. I’ve said that a couple of years now. At the end of the day, whoever the coach is, if he’s the coach, then I’ll be back playing for coach Casey.”
Lowry didn’t let up when he added: “There’s a lot of things you can say (publicly), but there’s a lot of things internally that probably need to be fixed.”
Ouch.
Not exactly a vote of confidence for his head coach. In fact, it’s pretty close to the definition of throwing Casey under the bus.
“He’s a motivational coach,” Lou Williams told the media. “He really gets guys going, just as far as getting guys fired up. He’s a very passionate guy.”
So, to clarify: Lowry respect Casey as a man and Williams admires Casey’s passion.
Neither player was able to sum up anything to give Casey credit for his X’s and O’s or his ability to mold Toronto into a defensive-minded team.
DeMar DeRozan was one of the few people to stick up for Casey, and claimed his head coach “gets a lot of flack,” but that he’s a “great coach.”
Things continued to get interesting When Casey indirectly admitted there were issues and tension in Toronto’s locker room this season.
“This is (DeMar’s) team,” Casey explained to the media. “If there’s something going wrong in in the locker room, say something. Speak up.”
So, one of the few players to speak up on your behalf, you partially throw under the bus? And, on top of that, you let the players deal with these issues without attempting to step in?
Awesome.
Casey also admitted that despite being one of the top scoring teams in the NBA this season, there were issues on the offensive end.
“Even thought you’re winning, to me, my one area, what I didn’t do a good job of, was establishing an offensive style,” Casey admitted. “Now, that sounds crazy, (because) we were in the top 10 in offensive efficiency. But establishing a style of play offensively that will help our defence. That is, as a staff, something we’ll go to the drawing board and make sure we establish tempo, a pace, a shot selection that helps our defence.
“I thought a lot of our defensive woes were connected directly to our shot selection. Our quick shots. Make or miss, you’ve got to establish a style of play that will help get you back on defence, get your jerseys back where you’re 5-on-5 more so than in transition or coming back frustrated because you didn’t touch the ball. There’s a lot of things that go into that.”
While it’s good to hear Casey realizes there were issues on the offensive end – after getting pestered for most of the season about this issue by the media – what’s frustrating is that nothing was done during the season.
You have to give Casey credit for boiling things down in a simple, easy to digest confession: “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to move the ball to the weak side. Or inside.”
It also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize this would be a problem when Toronto ranked 22nd in the NBA in assists and three of their top shooters in DeRozan (41%), Williams (40%) and Lowry (41%) failed to shoot better than 41% from the field.
It will be interesting to hear what Masai Ujiri has to say about Casey’s job security when he meets with the media later today. By the time Ujiri meets with the media, he will have had nearly 48 hours to digest what happened in the playoffs and 24 hours to think about what players told him during their exit interviews on Monday.
If what what Lou Williams and Kyle Lowry had to say are any indication, Casey didn’t exactly get a vote of confidence from his team.
