The Toronto Raptors have agreed to a three-year contract extension with head coach Dwane Casey.
The deal was first reported by Dave Zarum of Sportsnet on Thursday and was confirmed by the club Tuesday. Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports that the deal will pay Casey $18 million through 2018-19, and Doug Smith of The Toronto Star has confirmed that there are no option years on the deal.
Smith also reported that team options have been exercised on Rex Kalamian and Andy Greer, and since Nick Nurse is still under contract, at least the bulk of Casey’s staff will remain in tact, a huge win for the organization. For what it’s worth, Ujiri confirmed Kalamian will be back but went one step shy of confirming Greer and Nurse will be back, saying only that they’re working to retain them.
“My staff better be where they’re at” – Ujiri on potential office poaching. Hilarious.
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) June 7, 2016
Casey/Masai asked for an update on the staff
Masai: “His staff or my staff?”
Casey: “They’re trying to steal people from his staff too”— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) June 7, 2016
Had been reported that team has option on Greer, Nurse under contract., but these deals have a lot of clauses. https://t.co/EZmUCv72Th
— Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) June 7, 2016
I’ve already written a column about Casey’s deal and think it’s the right move, so I won’t rehash those opinions here.
On Tuesday, Casey and president and general manager Masai Ujiri were made available to media at BioSteel Centre to discuss the extension. On account of illness, I wasn’t there but followed along from home. Here are the relevant notes and quotes.
“We celebrate today with Coach Casey and congratulate him.” – Masai pic.twitter.com/eIQFDDbnU6
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) June 7, 2016
How excited?
“We’re very, very, very, very excited about this,” Ujiri opened.
“I’m really excited, energized,” Casey said. “As I told Masai the other day, nothing changes, we’ll just continue what we started.”
So, they’re excited. That’s good! Now, to get better.
“With the direction of our team, I think we have gotten better, and I think Coach Casey has really done a good job with this, making not only our culture but our players better,” Ujiri said. “There’s plenty of work to be done…We want to win in Toronto.”
Masai: “We’re trying to build something here and Coach Casey is a big part of it”
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) June 7, 2016
That mention of culture was a recurring one in the early part of the presser.
Culture and continuity
That should be little surprise. The organization has very clearly valued the culture Casey has helped build, as well as the continuity that’s come with having the fourth-longest tenured head coach in the league. It’s something that’s difficult to quantify and maybe even hard to see from the outside, but it can have a very real impact.
“When we try to build a program,” Ujiri said. “We wanted to establish a culture here that we feel will provide players, coaches, our organization, an opportunity to win a championship one day. That’s the ultimate goal and winning has always been what we talk to, culture has always been what we talk about. Coach Casey has been a big leader for us. A good teacher. Just a great teammate for us to have in this organization. We’re extremely, extremely happy we’re moving forward with this.”
Casey, himself, sees value in that, which is why he’s installed rules and norms that may not seem all that important at the micro level but set the tone for the larger-scale vibe of how this team will operate.
“They key word is consistent,” Casey said. “Guys know what to expect every day they come to work.”
That doesn’t mean Casey being retained has always been a slam dunk, obviously. His job security has been a talking point ever since Ujiri took over, and this is the first firm vote of confidence that Casey is “Ujiri’s guy,” despite earlier options being picked up. They’ve worked hand-in-hand, and now Ujiri’s put a major stake in a coach he inherited, with their contracts now running the same length of time.
That type of continuity is something that’s valued all through the organization, not just at the coaching level.
“When you study great organizations, I think it starts from the top. I’m biased, but I think we have the best ownership in the NBA,” Ujiri said, pointing around him at the brand new BioSteel Centre that MLSE saw fit to invest in. “Knowing people and building your culture, continuity is so important. You get to know people’s tendencies. And trust me, it’s not all holding hands and hugs…We argue, we disagree, but we walk out as one team.”
“It’s not all holding hands and hugs,” Ujiri says. Well, now I don’t want to work in a front office.
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) June 7, 2016
Assorted
*When Ujiri first met with Casey after taking the job, one of the things that stood out to him was the ability to learn and grow. That’s still true to this point, as Ujiri recalled a post-elimination conversation where Casey laid out areas the team needs to improve on. When you consider how well he’s accepted and empowered talented assistants who some saw as potential successors to his job, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t have the humility to know he needs the help of a whole to succeed.
“Once you stop learning, you might as well retire,” Casey said, before outlining a number of ways in which he needs to improve to keep up with the way the game’s evolving. Later, he added, “I learned what I don’t know” regarding the quality of his assistants.
Casey: ‘We’ve got to learn how to use Jonas Valancuinas against smaller line-ups … you have keep up with how the NBA game is evolving ..
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) June 7, 2016
Further to that, Casey once again mentioned that he’ll try to bring in an international coach for a part of the summer to take a look at how they operate, pick his or her brain, and so on. He also mentioned he’s occasionally sat in on the sessions of other coaches and brought coaches in for the staff’s annual summit. All of this is great. I’m a firm believer in going outside of yourself (or your company/organization/whatever) in search of best practices and ways of getting better. It seems simple, but you’d be surprised how few firms operate that way in the real world.
*There was naturally a lot of talk about Casey as a good person, which is important to the organization. “One of the most wonderful persons you can meet,” Ujiri said. For his part, Casey credited his family, particularly his wife, with showing the patience and understanding necessary for him to succeed.
Casey on his wife, Brenda, citing her support: “She knows the game a little bit … .enough to be dangerous’
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) June 7, 2016
*On being in Toronto, Casey said “it’s like any North American city,” shooting down any issue with customs and putting it up against L.A., New York, Chicago, and so on. “Most players here, they love it, once they get here. It’s a great basketball, a great sports city. We’ve come to love the city of Toronto, the country of Canada.”
*Never let it be said that Casey isn’t a good quote. On media coverage of the team and players: “One day you’re the statue, the next day you’re the pigeon.”
*Ujiri returned to the podium at the end of the presser to say a few kind words about Muhammad Ali, mentioning this quote the Raptors have in their weight room at BioSteel Centre.
Masai adds a comment about the late Muhammad Ali: "We lost a great man…he's a great soul. Rest in peace."
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) June 7, 2016
