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Dwane Casey laments start time in pre-playoffs address

Dwane Casey held his pre-playoff media availability on Thursday.

Dwane Casey spoke with assembled media at the BioSteel Centre on Thursday afternoon. Raptors Republic was unable to attend, so here are some tweets.

On scouting the Pacers:


That’s not entirely inaccurate.

On the early Saturday start time:


Yup. Groan.

On guarding Paul George:


DeMarre Carroll, DeMar DeRozan, James Johnson, and Patrick Patterson all did decent jobs against him during the regular season. If any one guy is getting beat regularly, the Raptors can opt to blitz his off-ball actions, though I’d guess they’ll try to play George straight up to start.

On Carroll’s minutes:


Here’s hoping he can go 20-25. He opens up a ton for the Raptors in terms of the lineup chess match. Speaking of…

On Norman Powell and playoff rotations:


The guess here: Casey starts with a 10-man rotation but Powell has a short leash as Carroll’s minutes expand. Thompson is 11th thanks to his defensive agility. Johnson is #12 as Carroll/George insurance. Nogueira is active. Wright and Caboclo are in street clothes.

On his message to the team and what’s different this year:


The core has two years of playoff experience now, and some of the players brought in this summer add to that. There’s no “bright lights of the playoffs” excuse this time around. Let’s get it.

But still, some expectation management:


Kind of disagree here, at least in terms of maintaining an 82-game buy-in that this core is good enough to contend. They might not be a finished product, and that’s fair and understandable since the long-term goal is title contention, but they need to take the next step in their progression. And I think it could do pretty irreparable damage when it comes to keeping casual fans hooked.

On his future:


Sure sounds from the last two days as if Casey’s getting extended. Which is more than fine. He’s earned it.

And one for levity:


I’m dying.

Shout out to beat writers.