Photo credit: MattAzevedo.com.
The awards just keep coming for Raptors 905.
Head coach Jerry Stackhouse was named the D-League Coach of the Year on Tuesday, a well-deserved honor that most seemed to figure was a certainty after he led the 905 to the second-best record of all time in his freshman season behind the bench. The 905 went 39-11 and set a D-League record with a 21-4 mark on the road while also earning three NBA call-ups and helping the Toronto Raptors in the process.
The sophomore 905 had barely any holdovers from the year prior, and Stackhouse quickly made his mark with long, frequent practices. That set a tone for the season that not only would the work be hard, but that everyone was expected to be ready when called upon. That meant a fairly democratic split of minutes in a deep rotation and a distribution of shots that came within the offense’s flow, boiling down to a handful of go-to attacks only when the clock or the game dwindled. The 905 moved the ball better than almost any other D-League squad, and while some of that was based on having an immense amount of talent, it also had a lot to do with the buy-in to the offensive system and the belief that smart play would beget better results.
Defensively, the 905 ground the pace down to a halt and made sealing off the paint a priority. With multiple versatile defenders across the three wing spots, Stackhouse’s system saw the team switch aggressively around an anchor at center in Defensive Player of the Year Edy Tavares, now a member of the Cleveland Cavaleirs. The 905 proved an elite defensive team with the league’s No. 2 defensive efficiency, and they were particularly strong cleaning up the glass, which helped fuelled the attack the other way.
That the 905 remain in the playoffs didn’t impact voting but it sure to make Stackhouse’s case look stronger after the fact. The 905 have lost Will Sheehey to injury and Tavares and Axel Toupane to call-ups to the NBA, and the team keeps chugging along. They dominated Maine in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals despite being down to just 10 healthy bodies (including the pair of Raptors assignees), and they can punch their ticket to the D-League Finals with a victory on Tuesday at Hershey Centre.
From a player development perspective, it would be hard to argue Stackhouse and his staff haven’t done a terrific job (David Gale, Nathaniel Mitchell, Nicki Gross, and the rest of the staff all deserve a world of credit here and surely share in Stackhouse’s honor). Bruno Caboclo has taken significant strides as a defensive player and in terms of maturity on the court, Delon Wright used the D-League as a successful rehab assignment, Jakob Poeltl was able to stay fresh on two occasions, Fred VanVleet emerged as a capable NBA point guard, Jared Sullinger briefly existed, and now Pascal Siakam is getting the chance to throw rapid growth in the postseason environment. The D-Leaguers have improved, too, with Brady Heslip growing immensely as a point guard, Tavares turning himself back into an NBA prospect, Toupane growing as an offensive weapon, and a number of other players putting themselves in better positions for the offseason and their next step.
The award marks the second for the 905 this year and the fourth in their two-year existence. It’s impossible to call the program anything but a resounding success so far, and Stackhouse has rightfully been given a nod for the large hand he’s had in that. As I wrote before the playoffs, this year probably puts Stackhouse on the NBA coaching radar, where he’d seem to be a terrific candidate to take over a young, developing roster.
