Masai: Casey has done a great job, he and players will learn from mistakes

[Lateral Quicks]

Masai, I am disappoint.

What system are you referring too? Our offense consists of jacking up inefficient long twos and threes. Our defense, previously a strength, regressed heavily even with an extra year of familiarity and better defensive players (e.g. JJ).

It looks like Masai has drunk the kool-aid. I guess we can look forward to DD getting a max extension to shoot his 40% and Lou to eat up the rest of our cap so he can keep shooting from half-court.

[OAKLEY_2]

:(

What did we do to deserve this?

I don't know. I watched Phil winning six rings in Chicago, and I could understand what he was doing and why. What Casey does I don't understand.

They had Micheal Freakin Jordan. Hello!

[steamed hams]

How pissed would you all be if WASH had the brains to fire Wittman even though he swept us, took the Hawks to a very close 6 with an injured John Wall out for 2 games but also with the knowledge that Casey is staying?

[whatamoron]

:(

What did we do to deserve this?

It's Karma payback for the fans who yelled FHRITP at female media persons.

People are upset because the Raptors are first round play-off fodder.
Well you won't have to worry about that next year because the Raptors won't
qualify for the play-offs. Most of teams in the East have maturing young talent
and good draft picks in the upcoming draft and they will be markedly better next season.
What do the Raptors have a 20th pick?
Don't think the Raptors can sign a noteworthy free agent, they haven't been able
to do it the past why do you think they will be able to now.
NBA players know what kind of disaster Toronto is, a cold foreboding place with
snow on the ground in April, monopoly money as currency, customs headaches, and
high taxes. The team will always be second class citizens to the Leafs and ownership
always has an eye on the cash register looking to maximize returns.
Why do think a top manager like Tim Leiweke is getting out of Dodge.
Leiweke understands that this franchise will never be a first class organization
until there is a change in ownership.

[Clutch Carter]

Yeah, the coach that is stubbornness epitomized is going to learn from his mistakes. That'll work.

Not sure who's a bigger clown, the coach or the GM who supports him.

[Mikistan]

MAYBE WE WILL GO BACK TO PLAYING DEFENSE

[right between the eyes]

We shoulda known Dougie's story about Masai's interest in Thibs was as usual non-factual. Cardinal rule= Doug Smith is never right!

[MEDIC]

Did we learn from the 2014 playoffs?

How did we go from one of the better defensive teams to one of the worst? Are these guys simple?

Everyone knows defense wins in the playoffs. It's always been that way. It's not rocket science.

Build a top 5 defensive team. End of story.

[BballFan2014]

Yeah, the coach that is stubbornness epitomized is going to learn from his mistakes. That'll work.

Not sure who's a bigger clown, the coach or the GM who supports him.

+ 1

This team is just going the opposite direction of successful. The GM and the coach are a total disappointment
Instead of going after a coach like thibs we stay with the same old tried and tested ways of not being successful

[dballislife]

Ya casey isn't that old he can still take a step, like ross, ross can still improve

But caseys been given talent and look wut he's done with it, many coaches have done so much more with less

[UnderdogRaptors]

They got straight up embarrassed and made us the laughing stock

[load management]

Colangelo tried to make moves and struck out. This is even worse.

[move_ball]

Amazing how after months of sub-.500 play losing to bad teams & getting stomped by good ones Masai still didn't see the sweep coming. All those years spent "evaluating" and he still can't figure out the issues with this team. This is unbelievable. He is still "trying to figure out the little things we didn't do". Is he blind or just lobotomized when he watches basketball?

"Casey is going to learn from his mistakes". Oh sure because the defense has clearly improved under his watch, young players are making such great progress, and the perimeter players have improved their shot selection & ball movement tremendously from Rasual Butler to Alan Anderson to Rudy Gay to Lou.

Oh wait...

This organization is a flaming trainwreck. I'm done with this team - the Raptors will be the only NBA team I refuse to watch next season.

[rage2021]

GROW EVALUATE GROW EVALUATE. gosh dam we havnt grown for 2 years! we regressed!

[youreachiteach]

I think maybe it's time to accept that the main reason he hasn't been fired is a very simple one--we can't get anyone else. In most of the major sports (except hockey briefly a long while ago) we have not been able to draw major coaches into the organization. All this evaluation-speak means they are looking for improvements and not finding them.

Griffin mentioned this about the Jays and their constantly revolving door of newbie coaches--hell, AA had to beg an old friend to come coach a team that was supposed to win the World Series (by betting line!). This is not to disparage Gibbons, it's just mentioned to illustrate the point that struggling franchises not in major markets do not get excellent vets like Pierce or all-star coaches like Doc to come and save the day. Even college coaches nowadays get to pick and choose where they want their opportunity to start (and it won't be here unless we get a Lebron-type player by draft).

As far as the Raptors are concerned, Casey is a former championship coach and MLSE figure they aren't getting any better. Why do you think Masai and MLSE are ready to "let him grow and learn with his staff"? Because they have no choice. They need to let him grow into what they hope he will be instead of what he should be now. They don't want to fire anyone with even the veneer of competence for fear of making their poor circumstance even worse. Casey showing up with his rings is evidence of this.

If you read between the lines everything is couched in "We know the problems but we will do what the market dictates". What this means is that the Raptors are unlikely to get a major free agent either. In fact, we may even lose Amir and Lou and be forced to take weaker players back just to remain "flexible".

I suppose we might do something like overpay Tristan Thompson (which would be a nice add), let lou walk, and try to trade Ross and/or a pick for a SF. We'll probably be better...but by how much I don't know. The truth is though, that the Raptors are less limited by their incompetence than from their reality in the NBA--an outlying wasteland that is struggling for any kind of relevance.

[Basketball_Jones]

Masai has always been in love with Casey they're like best friends. Better get used to the Casey era because it's going to last a VERY long time.

[Banjax]

Everyone here needs to just breathe for a bit and not freak out and bring out the pitch forks already, for all we know Masai could be looking for a new coach as we speak yet won't fire Casey until something is certain because what's the point of firing him if Masai can't get who he wants. In the meantime what do you expect him to do come out and say this team is getting traded because some of it is not good and we're looking for a better coach but if we can't find one we'll keep Casey? I'm sure that won't go over too well with players and coaches alike.

If they do keep Casey it could also be as simple as Masai doesn't see someone he likes this year and is waiting and also could be waiting to change coach once the team actually proves some worth which a lot of teams do since it's way easier to actually attract some coaches. I for one don't want the coaching carousel that we see far to often with other Toronto team's like the Leafs and TFC I prefer we wait and see if we can get someone that is actually worth waiting for and if that means one more year of Casey so be it.

[UneducatedFan86]

Masai can't be this blind...can he? I hope he fools us all and makes a few major moves this summer. If we are just shuffling the bench, then we are just going to continue to fail. We might make the playoffs, but probably won't even be a top seed next year. This team doesn't have the talent to succeed long-term.

God....it doesn't take 3 **** years to see that this team doesn't have "it". What happened to the Masai that wasn't afraid to pull the trigger on a big trade? He's basically the exact opposite of how he was in Denver. He took risks there. Here...it seems like he is fine with just staying the course.

[kplooksafterme]

This is the Raptors organization that I know so well. 'Everything's fine, what you saw didn't actually happen that way.'

[VinBaker6]

I don't know why you guys take Masai interviews at face value... I don't care what he says, I care what he does.

He hasn't really done anything. I will evaluate him this summer.