Masai's "process"So from Ujiri, there was plenty of talk about how a decision on who will be coaching the club next season would be “a process,” how “everybody” will be held accountable, how serious a “study” had to be undertaken into how a team that reeled off a 24-7 win-loss record out of the starting gate blew up down the stretch.
In other words, Ujiri hemmed and hawed, as is his public way. One moment he was proclaiming Toronto’s “base” as “good,” and calling Casey “a big part of our base.” The next he was letting it be known that he’s got plenty of questions for the coach and his staff, about, say, the usage of players such as Jonas Valanciunas, and about how a defensive coach like Casey could preside over a defence that ranked in the bottom handful of the league and allowed the Wizards to shoot a ridiculously generous 48% in the series sweep.
It’s understandable why Ujiri would leave Casey hanging: Face-kickings draw blood; it only makes sense for a GM who wants to be taken seriously to threaten the prospect of more.
What about Lowry's feud with Casey?As for point guard Kyle Lowry’s take on Casey — a cold-as-ice, “If he’s the coach, I’m a player” — it played to type, too. Talk to folks who’ve coached Lowry and know him, many of whom quite like him, and you hear a consistent take: If things aren’t going well for Lowry — and they haven’t been going well on the floor since around the time he started for the East in the All-Star Game — there isn’t a coach on the planet with whom he will happily coexist.
He’s a malcontent by nature, and an exponentially bigger one when success isn’t his. And even if you don’t believe it was particularly dastardly that Lowry picked last year, a contract year, to momentarily reform his reputation for pouty petulance —let’s just say the record shows that last year was a glaring exception of a season that saw Lowry happily coexist with almost everyone in Raptorland. Some $48 million in guaranteed money later, maybe it’s just a coincidence that he’s back to being his old difficult self — and also back, as Casey told the media on Monday, to coming out on the losing end of his career-long battle with a weight problem, this after a late-season injury saw him balloon beyond the admirably lean-and-mean form he brought to training camp.
Never mind coaching, Lowry’s non-performance in the playoffs had far more to do with Toronto’s ugly exit than any other single factor. Ujiri threw his best player a lifeline on Tuesday, pointing out that Lowry’s dazzling work in DeMar DeRozan’s injury-induced absence earlier in the season took a toll on the point guard.
But by the end, it was hard not to get the feeling that Lowry, exhausted though he may have been, was also taking a gas can and a lit match to Toronto’s hopes. Tired or hurt or not, falling into foul trouble in three of four games was inexcusable. And Lowry’s third foul in Game 4, biting on a weak pump fake by Bradley Beal, was either a case of unfocussed absent-mindedness or willful self-immolation. If he wasn’t fixing to get his coach fired, it certainly looked like he was begging for a seat on the bench. Whatever his intention, it wasn’t becoming of a star player.
Why firing Casey isn't a good idea right nowTo that end, firing Casey wouldn’t be becoming of a still-building NBA franchise. It was less than 17 months ago, don’t forget, that Ujiri thought so much of the core of this roster that he was commencing a tank job. The Rudy Gay trade was the beginning of the race to the bottom for Andrew Wiggins. Ujiri even got to the 11th hour of trade talks with the Knicks to divest himself of Lowry.
Between then and now, Casey has led largely the same team to back-to-back franchise-record win totals of 48 and 49. That, folks, qualifies as a good coaching job.
It sounds even better when you consider how poorly the Raptors have played without Lowry running at optimal levels. Absurd shot selection, shoddy rebounding, disinterested defence — to borrow a couple of words used by veteran forward Patrick Patterson to describe the Game 4 lay-down, it was horrific, scary stuff. Maybe Casey should have exacted more accountability for the dumb shot-taking. Maybe he should have demanded more diligence on the other end. And certainly Casey has his weaknesses, among them a below-average reputation as an in-game adjuster.
But his roster was stocked mostly with offence-first players who saw defence as an inconvenience and, as Casey said Monday, “took practice as punishment.” They were the NBA’s Maple Leafs, basically. As in Leafland, when you size up the shopping list of required upgrades, coaching doesn’t even make Page 1.
You want a tougher defensive team? Acquire tougher defenders. Want a better team? Acquire superior talent.
The changing dynamics of the team and why Lowry can't have a say in the future of CaseyThat last part could be a problem for the Raptors — and not because Ujiri isn’t resourceful enough to swing the deals to get it. It’s a problem because on the day Ujiri lands a player whose gifts are comparable or superior to Lowry’s, history suggests it will plunge Lowry into another sulk.
Insiders will tell you the point guard takes great satisfaction that the Raptors are “his” team. Surely that’s got to be a consideration when Ujiri charts the coming three seasons with Lowry under contract. Surely it wasn’t a coincidence that on Monday, after Lowry’s icy remarks about Casey, Casey attempted to empower the locker-room rise of DeMar DeRozan.
“This is his team,” Casey said of DeRozan. “He and Amir (Johnson) have been here the longest. If something’s going wrong in the locker room, speak up, say something, don’t just complain about it. And (DeRozan) is at that stage of his career now that he can speak up and be a leader, not depend on someone else to be a leader or listen to someone else. If you don’t agree with something, say something.”
In other words, if Lowry’s bringing down the squad with his latest grouse-fest, tell him to keep it to himself, keep in shape and play better. There are select players in the NBA who can make a case that they should have a say in who coaches their team. Half-season all-stars who don’t show up for the playoffs aren’t among them.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/2 ... schuk.html
