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Dwane Casey wins NBA Coach of the Year; full Raptors award voting results

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The NBA’s second annual end-of-season award show was held on Monday night, and there was some Toronto Raptors-relevant content. Yes, it’s silly that these regular season awards are being given out more than two months after the regular season ended, and there’s little enough engagement that an MVP finalist isn’t even on hand at the event, but these awards matter for pride, for bonuses, and for legacies. It’s also a nice opportunity to reflect on what was a terrific regular season for some Raptors.

Dwane Casey wins NBA Coach of the Year

Former Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey was named the 2018 NBA Coach of the Year. Casey received 39 first-place votes (six different coaches received first-place votes) and was included on 82 total ballots.

Casey thanked the writers for voting him before dapping up Quin Snyder, Brad Stevens, the rest of the NBA’s coaches, and his wife, who he called the “head coach of our family” as she laughed on camera (it was very cute). Casey also thanked a number of Raptors by name for helping build what the Raptors have become, including Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeROzan, and Jonas Valanciunas. And yes, of course he got a joke in about being fired as Coach of the Year, as he should have. It was a pretty great acceptance speech and exactly what you’d expect from Casey.

“If you get fired – I did recently, I don’t know if you knew that, after winning Coach of the Year – you always doubt yourself a little bit,” he said. “‘Do you want to do this?’…Then I met with Tom Gores…(And) all you want is an owner that believes in you.”

The case for Casey was pretty clear, as he led the Raptors to their fifth step forward in the last six years with a franchise-record 59 wins, a top-five offense, a top-five defense, a top-three net rating, and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. His regular season performance, which included a dramatic shift in the team’s playing style, is difficult to assail, and his job security was instead sunk by another underwhelming postseason showing for the team. This is a regular season award, though, and it’s tough to imagine Casey having done a better job in the regular season over the last half-decade. He is truly the best coach in Raptors franchise history, and this is a deserved feather in his cap no matter how things turned out at the end of the season.

Casey finished fifth in Coach of the Year voting a season ago, as well. He was also named the National Basketball Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year earlier this spring, awkwardly right around the time the Raptors opted to let him go. Casey, of course, landed in a nice fit with the Detroit Pistons, while the Raptors have hired his former assistant Nick Nurse to replace him. This is all a little awkward to navigate with the now-reigning Coach of the Year changing teams and all, but such is life in a business oriented largely on postseason results and where sustained regular season success has a built-in shelf-life.

VanVleet doesn’t win Sixth Man of the Year

Lou Williams was named the NBA’s Sixth man of the Year, as largely expected. He edged out Eric Gordon of the Houston Rockets and the leader of the Raptors Bench Mob, Fred VanVleet. VanVleet placed third in the voting with 64 points and one first-place vote, comfortably behind the other two and just narrowly ahead of Will Barton.

VanVleet was the engine of the Raptors’ league-best bench, providing leadership, playmaking, shooting, and hard-nosed defense. His counting stats – 8.6 points, 3.2 assists, 55.6-percent true shooting – pale compared to Gordon and Williams but few players helped their teams win like VanVleet, who ranked first among reserves and fourth among all players in net rating. Were the award handed out strictly on impact, VanVleet would have been difficult to argue against. As it stands, Williams had gaudier counting stats and VanVleet will instead take a finalist nod and a well-earned reputation as one of the league’s best young point guards into restricted free agency, where he should bring home something a little weightier than an award. Bet on yourself, indeed.

Williams at least gave him a “shout out to Fleet out there in Toronto.” Williams, by the way, has called this summer his “farewell tour to the clubs,” and this is a heck of a way to kick things off.

Other Raptors receiving votes

  • Most Valuable Player: DeMar DeRozan placed eighth in Most Valuable Player voting, receiving one third-place vote and appearing on 13 other ballots. Chris Bosh placed seventh in 2006-07, which remains the high-water mark in the voting in Raptors history, with DeRozan landing second here. DeRozan also joined Bosh earlier in the offseason by becoming just the third Raptor (along with Vince Carter) to earn All-NBA Second Team honors. It was a tremendous year for DeRozan, it just also happened to be a very competitive year int he MVP voting, and his late-season tail off (and defense) likely kept him from topping Bosh here. DeRozan also received one fifth-place vote last year.
  • Sixth Man of the Year: In addition to VanVleet, Jakob Poeltl also received one third-place vote.
  • Most Improved Player: DeRozan also placed ninth in MIP voting, while VanVleet finished 13th and Pascal Siakam finished 25th with one third-place vote.
  • Executive of the Year: Masai Ujiri finished fifth here, earning four first-place votes and four third-placed votes.
  • Teammate of the Year: Kyle Lowry finished 10th in voting here, earning 25 first-place votes (players vote on this so there were far more ballots; each team submits one finalist).
  • Other: No Raptors received Defensive Player of the Year or Rookie of the Year votes.
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