Report: Raptors sign Dwane Casey to 3-year extension (and why it’s a good thing) | Raptors Republic
It’s also great for Casey, who won’t have to go through a third consecutive season as a lame-duck head coach. Rather than the team picking up their 2016-17 option on him and Casey hanging on without a deal once more, he now has three years of security. That’s important not just for him personally, but also because it continues the sense of stability around the team and its culture, and players can be fairly certain what and who they’re buying in to is there for the long haul. It also allows Casey and general manager Masai Ujiri to continue to build the team with a multi-termed approach, playing for both the now and down the line. Casey did better in recent seasons in developing young players while also serving a win-now edict, and the security should give him the incentive to continue to foster both ends.
The Raptors’ organization has spent the last three years working to develop an identity and a culture, and Casey’s been a large part of that. The players go to war for Casey, and to a man, there’s buy-in to the “role cards” he distributes. There’s rarely an instance of players not showing up or effort waning, and the locker room speaks incredibly highly of their leader. Those cultural aspects absolutely matter, as they’re paramount to managing through adversity like injuries or losing streaks or uncertainty, and Casey’s done a terrific job for several years now managing the team’s roles and personalities. The players are due credit, too, of course, but the Raptors’ brand of tough, physical, never-say-die fortitude starts with their head coach and might not be sustainable without him at the helm.
The Vertical Podcast with Woj: Raptors GM Masai Ujiri | The Vertical
Toronto Raptors president and general manager Masai Ujiri joins Adrian Wojnarowski on a bonus episode of The Vertical Podcast.
Ujiri, the 2013 NBA Executive of the Year, discusses the details of making the Carmelo Anthony trade as the general manager of the Denver Nuggets, his own journey as the first native African to run a major North American sports franchise and the task of trying to turn the Raptors into champions.
Raptors reward Dwane Casey with new contract | Toronto Star
Far more than the money Casey will be paid or who works for him, the decision to offer him a long-term contract makes sense from every imaginable angle.
Not only has Casey won — his win total has increased every year with 23, 34, 48, 49 and 56 victories since he arrived in Toronto and an appearance in the Eastern Conference final this season — his message has never wavered. Continuity counts for something in the success and growth of any team.
“I still don’t think he gets a lot of credit that he deserves,” DeMar DeRozan said of Casey during the just-completed Raptors playoff run.
“He stuck with everything since day one. Casey hasn’t changed one bit and when you have a coach like that who sticks with what he thinks is right to get us here, it works.”
That may be Casey’s most important character trait and why Ujiri has not only given him this new deal, but why he re-upped him when he first became president and GM in the summer of 2013.
Consistency of message, and the voice that delivers it, is at the core of developing the kind of “culture” the Raptors crave and what they are building.
Casey has instilled a defence-first mentality — there was unquestionably a blip in 2014-15, when he had a bench that treated defence like it was radioactive waste — and has been instrumental in guiding the natural progression of a roster to the point where it was among the final four in the league this past season.
Report: Raptors, Dwane Casey agree to 3-year, $18 million extension | CBSSports.com
Casey takes pride in that reputation as a defense-first coach, and Toronto has also had a top-five offense in the past two seasons. In his five years with the Raptors, he has helped them transition from rebuilding to the second-best team in the East. That is not an easy thing to accomplish, but the next step — becoming elite — might be even tougher.
Report: Dwane Casey agrees to 3-year extension to remain Raptors head coach | Raptors HQ
While there are fair criticisms to be made of Casey, such as his late clock play-calling and his rigid regular season rotation, he proved to be more flexible in this year’s playoffs than in the past. When it was apparent that Luis Scola wasn’t giving the team much in the starting lineup, he shifted Patrick Patterson in and the team prospered. He wasn’t afraid to give Norman Powell some shine when he was effective, which gave him the opportunity to be a breakout performer in a pivotal Game 5 against Indiana. When Valanciunas went down, he tightened the rotation to remove backup bigs who weren’t giving the team anything, which helped them finish off Miami and compete against Cleveland.
Casey was also surrounded by an excellent team of assistants this year, who helped him implement a defense that was much improved in taking advantage of the team’s players. By ICEing the pick and roll, Valanciunas went from total liability to solid rim protector, developing into a two-way force in his healthy playoff games. While the news on which assistants will return, there’s no question that having Andy Greer, Rex Kalamian, Jerry Stackhouse, and Nick Nurse by his side this year helped, and will continue to in the future if some or all of them stick around.
Raptors sign coach Dwane Casey to three-year extension | Toronto Sun
The other important offshoot of bringing back a man familiar with the organization, its talent base and everything else that goes into a team’s makeup is the continuity it ensures.
It’s a rarity in professional sports these days. Only three coaches — Gregg Popovich of San Antonio, Rick Carlisle of Dallas, and Erik Spoelstra of Miami — have been running their respective teams’ benches longer than Casey has in Toronto and Casey has been here all of five years.
The ever-changing philosophies, tendencies and schemes that come with each and every new head coach only serve to make things tougher.
It can be overcome, but normally that’s because the talent level is so superior to most of the rest of the league.
Re-signing Casey for three years brings a calm to the proceedings at a time in Toronto when calm is needed.
This is a team that is set up to keep moving forward. They are flush with draft picks over the next two drafts, they have or will have their star players locked in and they have a good mix of veteran experience and athletic youth that should serve them well.
They also have a general manger in Masai Ujiri who along with his team of lieutenants is on course to take this team to even bigger things.
Sure, there are hurdles to overcome, but in the history of the franchise, the Raptors have never been in a better situation.
Sources: Raptors, Dwane Casey agree to extension | Yahoo Sports
Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey has reached agreement on a three-year, $18 million contract extension, league sources told The Vertical.
The Raptors essentially tore up the 2016-17 option on Casey’s deal and replaced it with a new three-year contract that runs through 2018-19, league sources said.Under Casey, the Raptors had the franchise’s best season in history, which included 56 regular-season victories and a berth in the Eastern Conference finals. Toronto lost 4-2 in the best-of-seven series against Cleveland.
Raptors have found stability in Casey | TSN
However, more and more it’s become clear that there is value in continuity. In an era where just about everybody aspires to emulate the San Antonio Spurs’ model, there is one key ingredient that often goes overlooked: patience.
The Raptors hired Dwane Casey in June of 2011, a time of great uncertainty for the franchise. A year removed from losing Chris Bosh, Toronto was coming off a 22-win season, one in which it ranked dead last in defence. They were in search of an identity, a purpose, anything.
Now, five years and 62 coaching changes later, Casey is the fourth-longest tenured head coach in the NBA – behind his former Mavericks boss Rick Carlisle, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and, the benchmark, Gregg Popovich.
The 59-year-old coaching lifer has helped transform the Raptors organization. Under his watch the team has secured three straight division titles. DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry have blossomed into all-stars, with Jonas Valanciunas seemingly not far behind. They have improving their win total in each of his five seasons – culminating in this year’s 56-win campaign and trip to the Conference Finals.
On Thursday he was rewarded with a three-year, $18 million extension that will keep him in Toronto through 2018-19, as reported by Yahoo’s The Vertical.
Draft workout notes: Henry Ellenson and Stefan Jankovic | Raptors Republic
He can really score, though, in a variety of ways. And don’t be fooled by the 28.8-percent mark from 3-point range – his shot is pretty pure, he’s a strong free-throw shooter, and his shot selection may have hurt his percentages some. In the right environment, it’s not hard to see him being an average or better 3-point shooter out of the gate. He finished the workout hitting 6-of-10 on threes in 55 seconds in a line-to-line end-of-practice endurance drill, and I’m told he shot the ball pretty well throughout the workout.
“He’s a skilled 6-11 guy,” Tolzman said. “I think it’s (shooting) what they do primarily, but it’s not just what they do. Guys have a handle and can do a lot of things as far as passing, and can bring a lot of variety to your offense.”
Chad Ford, in particular, is really high on Ellenson, but I tend to trust Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress a little more and don’t share Ford’s optimism that Ellenson could play the five despite measuring like one (although Tolzman did mention positional versatility as a plus). He might be the first Marquette product I’ve ever not been high on. (And yes, he’s close with Steve Novak, a similarly sized and skilled Marquette guy who played for the Raptors.)
NBA Draft Notebook: Raptors work out stretch-four candidates | Sportsnet.ca
The prototypical stretch-four, Ellenson checks off basically everything the Raptors were in need of at the power forward position this past season, with one glaring omission.
Big East Freshman of the Year this season, Ellenson is a strong three-pointer shooter, has good rebounding instincts and has the kind of handle and playmaking skills that would allow the Raptors to use popular sets that involve big men as ball-handler and guards as the screener in pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop more consistently.
His inside game is still a bit of a work in progress, but he boasts the necessary skill and size to add to it, making him a potentially dangerous versatile weapon.
“I was always growing up playing out on the perimeter,” Ellenson said. “I was playing point guard until eighth grade and then a coach during my sophomore AAU season was like, ‘you’re six-nine, time to go on the block.’ So I was able to take that summer and find a good mix of inside and outside.”
Unfortunately, for all his “position-less” offensive gifts, Ellenson will likely struggle on the defensive end against players similar to him at the next level. He’s not a great athlete and his lateral quickness is good enough that he, according to Tolzman, “shouldn’t be a liability at all” at the next level, he’s absolutely no threat as a shot-blocker so he’ll only really be able to defend half of the pick-and-roll with any amount of competency.
James Johnson Watch Finale: So long and have a good summer | Raptors HQ
Did James Johnson Play?
In — quite frankly — an amazing turn of events, Johnson played in 14:55 minutes of game action for the last week, the last game of the season. I set the line at 13.5, which means I was actually scarily accurate in predicting the week’s events. Sad for the Raptors, good for me (and maybe you if you took the over).
Johnson wasn’t particularly effective in Game 6, the Raptors’ last stand against the forces of Cleveland. He went 1-for-4 from the field for two points, grabbed a rebound and had two turnovers. The Great JJ Renaissance 2016 — the thing that could have happened had Johnson slowed down LeBron in some way or made the Cavs pay for going small/soft on the frontline — never quite happened.
contract with Fuenlabrada, a Spanish club, for two more seasons, the team held Biyombo to his $1.5 million buyout. With the Bobcats only able to pay $500,000 and Biyombo’s court attempts to lower the buyout total foiled, the Congo native agreed to pay the difference out of his own pocket.
That’s serious dedication.
Green Street » Celtics Choice: Al Horford vs. DeMar DeRozan | Green Street
The case for DeRozan
The Celtics need scoring, and that’s basically all DeRozan has done since arriving out of USC with the No. 9 pick in the 2009 draft. He averaged a career-high 23.5 points a game this season and led the Raptors to their first Eastern Conference Finals, where they managed to deal the mighty Cavaliers their only two losses of the postseason. DeRozan is a classic scoring wing, with an excellent turnaround game in the post and the ability to get to the rim or get fouled almost at will. The majority of his points come from within 12 feet, but points are points. He finished second in the NBA in free throws made (555) and third in attempts (653), good for a career-high 85 percent from the line. He’s also a solid perimeter defender who doesn’t turn 27 until August. There’s the added bonus that signing him would rob a division rival of its best player. He’s a two-time All-Star.
The case against DeRozan
He does nothing to solve the Celtics’ inability to shoot from 3-point land, where he’d fit right in with some of the bricklayers in Green. He shot a career-best .338 from beyond the arc last season, but is a miserable .283 for his career — long-range marksmanship simply isn’t part of his repertoire. Of the league’s top 10 scorers, only Pelicans power forward Anthony Davis attempted fewer 3-pointers than DeRozan’s 139, and Davis missed 21 games. As much as the Celtics need scoring, it’s unclear how DeRozan’s isolation/post/midrange game would fit Brad Stevens’ offense, which prioritizes ball movement. There’s also the matter of money. Whereas Horford could conceivably sign a four-year deal, DeRozan is at an age to demand more cash over a longer term, with his hometown Lakers expected to offer the moon.
Bryan Colangelo’s 10th Anniversary of Andrea Bargnani Pick | The Sixer Sense
With the first pick of the 2006 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors selected center/power forward Andrea Bargnani. Bargnani was a 7’0″ 245 power forward who was brought in to pair with Chris Bosh. In his rookie year, despite his selection as first overall, he only started two games but did make appearances in 65 games overall, missing the other 17 due to nagging injuries.
Bargnani was the consensus pick at the time, if there in fact was one. But the draft had plenty of fire power later in the draft: The Raptors not only failed to select the best player in the draft, Brandon Roy, but they also missed out on LaMarcus Aldridge, the best big man in the draft. Bargnani’s been described as a “slow-to-develop creampuff who is too slow for a perimeter player and too soft for an interior player. Plus, his defense is among the worst in the league. And why would the Raptors invest in a finesse-oriented big man when they already had Chris Bosh?”
Why indeed.
Rajon Rondo and Kyle Lowry were available to help out in the back court, and Paul Milsap was on the board and would eventually be a dominant power forward as well.
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