Credit to Casey and his coaching

[Chriscross]

I agree. Give credit where credit is due. The team loves Casey. They are playing winning basketball. They are tops on both the Offence and Defence.

If we were 2-13 and playing losing basketball..People will still say the same thing.
Casey is a very good coach. better than a lot of other teams with better players.

After saying all that, lets see if he can keep this up and bring us to second round.

Replace Casey's name with Mark Jackson. GSW realized how **** Mark Jackson was and they won 51 games

Tell me what plays Casey runs on offence and tell me how it is similar to the plays Jackson runs? Curious to hear actual analysis rather than spewing an opinion. I can get a non-NBA fan to watch 5 minutes of Raptors basketball and get an opinion from him on Casey

[OvertimeNO]

Replace Casey's name with Mark Jackson. GSW realized how **** Mark Jackson was and they won 51 games

The only bit worth responding to is the thought of a DC team (hopefully ours) with a healthy Andrew Bogut as its anchor on D. That would be a legit title contender.

[ReaLiez]

Casey was terrible last year compared to this year, seems to me he got the team that he wanted and now his biggest fault - his awful substitutions - are a thing of the past with the amount of depth this team currently possesses.

The Two Point Guard Line-up actually works with Vasquez and Lou - gives us speed/play-making on offence while only giving up a small difference in strength on D

The Substitutions are better with players such as PATMAN Swaggy V Sweet Lou JJ and even Chuck are capable of proving solid back-up minutes. No more Salmons is an addition by subtraction. JV and Ross are getting more playing time now that they are a year older. Casey favours Vets. If we were a sub .500 team (9th, 10th) I bet he wouldnt play Bruno and Bebe as much as we want and suggest he should get fired for someone who can develop the youth.

The roster really helps him out but I give credit where credit is due. Great defensive coach and a "players coach". Plays following a time-out are OK still...we have cut the opponents lead a few times but IDK if that is more credit to Lowry's heart and DeRozan's balls or Casey

[bmwally]

He's found a way to make all the pieces work. He's integrated James Johnson and Lou Williams into the team with barely any bumps while figuring out how to get 2Patt and Vasquez a role that makes them a large part of the success of the team. He's keeping the bottom of the bench hungry and game ready. Most important, we are at 13-2.

Is there room to improve? Absolutely. But look at the first game against Atlanta, and look at yesterday. It seems each game Casey is figuring out something and exploiting it. As comfortable I am with Kyle Lowry, I am with Casey, most of the time he makes the right decision.

No coach is perfect, Pop pulled the greatest PF of all time off the floor during the final play two years ago and it cost him a championship. Can you imagine if those Spurs were the Raps and Casey made that call?!??! This board would literally explode.

[VanDamme]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/WolstatSun/status/538091367931469824[/tweet]

The man has a plan, let him BUILD the damn team.

[JV4MVP]

Sorry OP, minus 1

We're underestimating this roster and a weak Eastern conference. The real test comes from Christmas to end of January:

[LLJ]

Based on that recent on Camera interview of Demar on NBA whatever it was, where he said something along the lines of "Casey doesn't care about our offence so long as we play good D", I gotta say... Awesome.

I have a theory Kyle Lowry has a LOT to do with the offence we are running. I also suspect Kyle Lowry is a basketball Genius.. His BB IQ is pretty ridiculous... Which is why we are blowing people out on that end of the court.

This team as a great balance, and Casey is part of that balance. He holds everyone accountable on DEFENCE... Which is really the most important aspect of the game by a wide margin. Thus, he's a good coach.

Also, what's great about this team is everyone wants to improve, Casey included...

Casey does seem to allow Lowry (and the team) to make their own decisions more on offence this year. IIRC, I believe there were a number of times in the Memphis and Boston games during crunch time where he opted to just let Lowry make the decisions on which plays to run, rather than calling a timeout and drawing up a play for them. Which was pretty bold, especially with the game on the line.

[m83588333]

Based on that recent on Camera interview of Demar on NBA whatever it was, where he said something along the lines of "Casey doesn't care about our offence so long as we play good D", I gotta say... Awesome.

I have a theory Kyle Lowry has a LOT to do with the offence we are running. I also suspect Kyle Lowry is a basketball Genius.. His BB IQ is pretty ridiculous... Which is why we are blowing people out on that end of the court.

This team as a great balance, and Casey is part of that balance. He holds everyone accountable on DEFENCE... Which is really the most important aspect of the game by a wide margin. Thus, he's a good coach.

Also, what's great about this team is everyone wants to improve, Casey included...

Casey does seem to allow Lowry (and the team) to make their own decisions more on offence this year. IIRC, I believe there were a number of times in the Memphis and Boston games during crunch time where he opted to just let Lowry make the decisions on which plays to run, rather than calling a timeout and drawing up a play for them. Which was pretty bold, especially with the game on the line.

Explains why our set plays are better. He should let Fields handle rotations. Bruno can be in charge of calling time-outs.

[Da1RealRapsFan]

Casey is a fantastic coach.

This is a video I took of my friend criticizing Casey's coaching at a basketball camp this summer. Guy ragged on Casey all day so the entire camp decided to teach him a lesson.



True story.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[Northface82]

Casey is truly a great coach.
I love his mentality that as long as his players are 100% committed to the defensive schemes, he lets them do literally whatever they want on offence. Didn't sound right at first, but hey... its working isn't it?!

Thank you Coach and GO RAPS!!!!

[roundhead0]

Casey is definitely improving as a coach, but I give a lot more credit to Masai.

I mean, did Casey suddenly become a brilliant coach overnight, and that night happening to coincide with the Gay trade? No. Basically, with that trade Masai removed the last possible way for Casey to badly hurt himself by giving a "star" player too much leash (the other being Bargs who was shipped out earlier) while at the same time giving the Raps a much, much stronger bench. Casey still puts a lot of control into certain players' hands, but now those players are both much less selfish and much more successful: Lowry and Demar.

Casey is not a bad coach at all, but it took Masai to remove the problem that really exposed Casey's weakness as a coach.

[cammac]

The team likes him and we have a 13 & 2 start no reason to change him but he is a average coach.
He is better calling timeouts this year but he is still too hard headed.
Casey hasn't built this team Masai has!!!!

[JackedFinancier]

It's about time that this man got his dues as a coach. He gets all the blame for the losses and none of the credit for our success. If he did everything that posters here wanted him to do then we wouldn't be the second best offensive team in the league. Everyone thinks he's an idiot for not riding the hot hand and is unwilling to fluctuate his principles from game to game.

It's for this EXACT reason why we're adorning a 13-2 record.

Dwane Casey's decisions doesn't waver on things he can't control, like shots going in. What his philosophy is predicated on is things he can control, like wanting his players to play with confidence and exerting their utmost out there. And this is why we're so good on offense and why not making a forced effort to only look for the hot hand has allowed us to be such a high scoring team, because he refuses to abandon what he believes in in his players; that they're all capable of greatness.

His belief in his players doesn't jump around according to who makes their most shots, it's always consistently there, and it leaves the door open for performances like last night where everyone can have the hot hand.

We've seen the lows of this principle with Rudy Gay, but we're experiencing the high of it right now at this very moment. In the first quarter it was DeRozan that had the hot hand, and for the rest of the game it was Vasquez and Lou alternating between who was hotter, and Lowry finished it off (more with his intangibles and playmaking granted).

If Casey panicked and focused all of his offense into riding the player who had the hottest hand? Then the rest of our players wouldn't be playing with 100% confidence and energy knowing that they can't play their game because they have to defer to whoever is making their shots. We were as good as we were offensively because Casey believes in his players as much as they believe in themselves, and he walks the talk with his coaching style; that it's okay to miss shots as long as they never doubt themselves and work their butt off out there. Again this backfires badly when you have Rudy Gay, but it's worked wonders with our backcourt rotation thus far.

It's GREAT he doesn't reward players who make their shots. I wish some of you were old enough to have experienced the Triano years. He's exactly what everyone wants Casey to be. He rode the hot hand all the time, he changed his principles all the time to conform to his opponents. And you know what happened? Our players played with zero effort most of the time. They didn't know what to expect from Triano and his knee jerk reaction coaching style. He had a flimsy foundation that fluctuated like waves and that gave nothing for our players back then to fall back on when the tough got going. Anyone remember how we ALWAYS gave up the lead in the second half? We could be up 20 and it wouldn't have mattered.

It's the polar opposite with Casey. We always fight back in every game we're in, we never give up, because Casey never once gave up on them and what they've spent hours practicing on in practice.

I'm not saying Casey is a great coach, he has things he needs to work on. I wish his sets were most sophisticated to better utilize our guys. I watch the Mavericks and Spurs and I'm in complete awe of how coordinated their attack is. I wish we had that, but unless you're Monta Ellis you can't have it all.

I just wish people for once acknowledged what a good job Casey is doing with this team and that we're 13-2 because of him, not in spite.

in before TL:DR (didn't realize how long this post was until after I finished it)

[kasrahimi]

All I know is, the team is 13-2, the best start this franchise has ever had, players are progressing in terms of their development, chemistry is at an all-time high, the team is one of the best teams in terms of 4th quarter differential, and the players never give up on the game no matter the score so come-back deficits is the norm if the game ever gets to that point.

Casey and his staff gets my kudos.

X 1000

[kasrahimi]

....we're top 10 in defense and offense, not to mention tied for first in the league...all our players are team-first guys who respect and play hard for our coach...not sure why so many people are overlooking this

[kayliecee]

. He's weak in developing young players and his in-game substitutions and ability to make adjustments in the middle of a game leaves something to be desired, for example.
.

Can you clarify what you mean by adjustments? I see posters use that term a lot around here and sometimes I wonder if they're just using it as a synonym for substitutions.

Sometimes I wonder if all fan criticisms of NBA coaches boils down to substitions... the most visible aspect of coaching which doesn't really speak to a coaches game plan, their defensive and offensive sets, whether plays are breaking down due to breakdowns in offball movement and miscommunications or whether the coach is unable to counter defensive strategy (and conversely, why specifically a coaches team isn't executing defensively)

Boiling every criticism down to "substitutions" seems like a very facile way of judging job performance in contrast

I can think of only one poster on RealGM who sounds like he has coached basketball at any decent level, and his name is not Tacoma. Most people here who criticize Casey talk like they think NBA coaching is like playing basketball on their PS4. Or they'll regurgitate strength of schedule stuff. Here's a news flash, according to Hollinger, our SOS is .498. The difference between that and the end of season SOS (.500) is statistically negligible. I admire the people who don't mind admitting that Casey is a good coach even though they used to think otherwise -- and there are a LOT of them. The rest are fools.

[Dennis 37]

When did we ever have ESPN disect superior Raptor defence?

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11935773&ex_cid=espnapi_internal

Casey's quality attributes to mistakes ratio, in my opinion, is high.

[becausephilchow]

Doesn't matter the kind of teams we've played, or this and that.

Like it's been said, all I know is that our team is playing well, they all get along, and they work hard, play a full 48 minutes, and they listen to what Casey wants.

They believe in him, and he also believes in our players.

Some might say JV's not getting enough playing time, but he's 22. He'll come along, and he's gassed when he plays extended minutes. Casey preaches defence and grinding out games, and if JV isn't able to keep up with his assignments on D, that grinding isnt going to work.

[UnderdogRaptors]

I think ultimately we end up in the top 2 of the EC and Casey wins a well deserved COTY award, it will burn the haters souls when he wins it cuz "he sucks so much and has no idea what he's doing."

[DonMega]

I gotta admit, casey is the best coach this team ever had. He does make bone headed moves but it's clearly working this season and the team respects him.

--Sent from my Note Pro 12.2