Dwayne Casey's Horrible Coaching

[Dr Positivity]

The team has been winning a lot of games lately with an extremely flawed roster, what do you expect??? Casey is responsible for the team's D, which is why they're winning

[DHK]

Dont forget terrible substitutions. The team was bleeding! Casey calls a timeout and trots back the same lineup, and THEN starts subbing them out when their was dead balls. He always does this, What are the points of those timeouts if you arent making the changes then!?

The point of the timeouts?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qEsTXVj57M[/youtube]

[vini_vidi_vici]

What I would run?
I would use my bigs.

A) Amir and Val have underrated post games, I'd give them the ball in the post, give them few chances to operate. Amir has a very nice hook and soft touch around the basket and a good finish. Val also has a good back to the basket game although it's still unpolished.

B) Run more pick and roll. ever since JC left, Amir's being hung out to dry. through the JC/Amir PnR it was always guaranteed points as it was quite difficutl to stop especially with Amir being one of the best rollers to the basket with glue like hands. Val also has a great PnR Game, that's how they used him effectively in the national team and in Euroleague not sure why they're shying away from that here.

C) The wings. Motion offense. The fact that the play is "Give gay/demar. spectate" is not a good play. Casey also has to recognize that he has two very strong screeners in Val/Amir, and Gay/Demar both have wet mid range games. Why not abuse it? Have them continue run around, get them looks off of curls, make a play taht generates space for them instead of having a pre-set spacing layout and telling them to generate.

D) Adapt. They're packing the paint? Bring in your best shooters. bring in bargs to strech them out to force them to crawl out of their tight spaces, He does figure it out, but by the time he does, it's too late the opponent has made a run. He's terrible at in-game adaptations on offensive schemes

A) Jonas (.76PPP) doesnt have a good post game. Amir has great PPP, but his actual post moves arent great, but again I dont know how they accumulate these stats, via synergy.

B) PnR was the bread and butter under Jose, because he was great at finding the curling man. This isnt something Lowry, nor JL3 are great at. Having said that, we run it more than any part of our offense, outside of maybe ISOs, and finish with it (per synergy) second only to spot up shooting. We also run it more than most teams, specifically another perimeter oriented team, OKC.

C) This isnt wet midrange games.




The problem is theres no spacing when teams pack in the midrange game because theres no shooters to "space" the floor.

D) Who are the best shooters? JL3/AA/Lowry, so you want small ball? please start bringing that up to everyone.

This team is what it is, a bad amalgamation of talent, but scapegoat Casey all you want I guess.

[bigbadstevenson]

What in the f uck is going on with Valanciunas? Does Casey expect him to play like s hit in the 2nd half for some reason? I don't understand why he plays him at all. Why not just start Anderson if Valanciunas can't be trusted, or maybe Bargnani, since he plays more minutes, anyway? Taking him out with "foul trouble" is completely transparent. It's blatantly obvious that Casey's not trying to develop him. Even if you subscribe to the idiotic foul trouble theory, there's absolutely no way to justify taking him out because of it after picking up 2 fouls in half of his projected playing time. Christ, the other night, Valanciunas got benched in the 2nd quarter with 3 fouls! Obviously Casey either a) expects him to pick up 3 fouls in his remaining 8 minutes of playing time and for some reason sees this as a huge problem for a guy whose second-half contribution doesn't seem to matter anyway, or b) is trying to minimize his playing time while trying to fool people into thinking he's not.

I was so sure that Anderson's minutes would disappear after they failed to trade him. Now, I'm at a complete loss for explanations of Casey's rotation. Does he want as many chuckers out there as possible? Does he think that this is a good strategy or is there something else going on? I'm thinking it has to be something ridiculous like that they don't want to make the playoffs because they want to give up the draft pick this year, or that MLSE doesn't want their basketball team to overshadow their hockey team. Like I said, I'm at a loss.

I've been high and low on the Raptors (especially with their recent abominable camera work, which never disappeared despite their publicized new head honcho and is slowly but surely returning to the disgraceful state it was in last year), but I've been very interested this season, watching every game and going to a few, and the fact that a game like that is even possible is extremely angering. There really isn't much hope for them in the near future. Lowry will never be a good starting point guard. His mediocre play was excused in people's minds by his PT battle with Calderon. Now, we see that he actually isn't a very good player, and that his contract isn't a bargain, and that his acquisition was a total waste of a draft pick. Maybe he'll have a good contract year and the Raptors can cripple themselves for a few years yet again by giving him $12 million a season. Gay is wildly, breathtakingly inconsistent. They trade away a draft pick for somebody whom they don't seem to have much interest in playing (it doesn't take more than a weekend to learn the catch-and-chuck offense) and whose value could have been had for the price of a few 10-day contracts. They insist on not developing players who actually have potential, unlike Anderson, who peaked 3 months ago and contributes no more than Ross. Are they going to give him Landry Fields money in the off-season? Guys don't do everything they can to win -- even the dreadfully easy things: last week against Memphis in a game that could have gone either way, Derozan deliberately held the ball until half-time and flung it into the jumbo-tron instead of cutting towards half-court, looking for an actual shot. This guy already got his contract, not that that would excuse this me-first attitude; clearly, his own percentages don't take a back seat to the team's winning percentage.

I have a complete lack of confidence in the Raptors in 3 aspects: I don't expect management to make any good decisions what so ever; I don't expect Casey to make a justifiable decision about lineups, rotations, or play calling; and I don't expect any of their "playmakers" (I'm looking you dead in the eyes, Lowry) to make a good decision on the basketball court.

This might be the year I finally cancel that sports package.

[Morse Code]

It doesn't matter how good your coaching is; when your lead offensive guy has a TERRIBLE night from the field; wtf you gonna do?

Run an actual play maybe? Don't blame this on Rudy (although he was absolutely horrid); he should have never been put in that position to chuck away from deep. The type of shots we get is all on Casey unless we have a particular player who's going directly against the coach's game plan.

[Truthrising]

I seriously don't get why BC hasn't questioned the ineptitude coaching by Casey by now. If BC thinks coaching is fine than I think both of them deserves to be fired.

[timdunkit]

Since everyone here complains about lack of offensive sets, what would you run? This is all I want answered.

Why is it when we ran plays with Jose on the floor (a guy who runs sets, great shooter), the narrative was he "pounds the rock too much", yet when we go out and get an inefficient ISO player, to go with another one, its lack of offensive sets? Casey has shown he can do both, but its the talent, and accumulation that is going wrong. Casey started running a pre-dominantly Iso offense because thats where the best 2 scorers excel, does this need to be said again?

So why go small ball, because guess what, you need shooters when Gay/DD are on the floor, so instead of Val/Amir you bring in the third best 3pt shooter on the team, AA (a whopping 35%). I dont expect anyone to watch MIA games, but thats how we are trying to be built. What do they have an abundance of? and what plays are run? Shooters/ISO offense. Which one is Caseys fault? Remember when Sam said he couldnt coach like he wanted? Could this not apply to Casey? of course not.

But hey we need a low post threat right? thank god we shipped out one of the best 3pt shooters in the league! This team is just a bad amalgamation of talent. But alas everyone needs a scapegoat, so blame rotations, or whatever you parrot from others, but dont bother accepting that this team is very flawed.

The worst part is I think Casey is just a good coach not great, but the narratives are out of control.

What I would run?
I would use my bigs.

A) Amir and Val have underrated post games, I'd give them the ball in the post, give them few chances to operate. Amir has a very nice hook and soft touch around the basket and a good finish. Val also has a good back to the basket game although it's still unpolished.

B) Run more pick and roll. ever since JC left, Amir's being hung out to dry. through the JC/Amir PnR it was always guaranteed points as it was quite difficutl to stop especially with Amir being one of the best rollers to the basket with glue like hands. Val also has a great PnR Game, that's how they used him effectively in the national team and in Euroleague not sure why they're shying away from that here.

C) The wings. Motion offense. The fact that the play is "Give gay/demar. spectate" is not a good play. Casey also has to recognize that he has two very strong screeners in Val/Amir, and Gay/Demar both have wet mid range games. Why not abuse it? Have them continue run around, get them looks off of curls, make a play taht generates space for them instead of having a pre-set spacing layout and telling them to generate.

D) Adapt. They're packing the paint? Bring in your best shooters. bring in bargs to strech them out to force them to crawl out of their tight spaces, He does figure it out, but by the time he does, it's too late the opponent has made a run. He's terrible at in-game adaptations on offensive schemes

A) Amir and JV have shown little iso-post game. Amir is usually very awkward when he has to drive and get by his defender. Also, with poor perimeter shooting DD/Gay, wing players will be able to double in the paint on weak post players.

B) We do run PnRs with Gay and DD as the ball handler (more so now since JC is gone). Issue is that, Jose would run 2-4 PnR sequences in a single possession if he had too. DD/Gay might run 1 and then look of the screen and try to create or reset to Lowry.

C) I notice with a lot of iso-scorers from midrange, but there not comfortable consistently coming of curls (though Derozan was good a few years ago). They become hesitant to shoot that open mid range jumper all the time. With teams being able to pack the paint, it becomes hard to drive. You see it consistently with Gay or DD driving, kicking the ball out and when one of them gets the ball, they end up driving to a pack paint. Again, it was something we new when we traded for Gay was going to be an issue.

D) Bargnani has been terrible and we cannot forget about his defense. Though to be honest, the organization has done a terrble job of developing these guys to make plays for others or make the right pass. First open shot someone gets, they take (cough cough Lucas/Anderson).

Casey is a pretty bad offensive coach but again, he doesn't have a team built around a certain player. He has mismatched parts and he's just trying to make it work with a style the guys don't mind playing.

[Marvin Martian]

The team has been winning a lot of games lately with an extremely flawed roster, what do you expect??? Casey is responsible for the team's D, which is why they're winning

The Raptors are 24th in defensive rating. Casey is responsible for making this team one of the worst defensive squads in the NBA.

[D-BE-LAW]

I don't understand caseys playing of val either. Why does he start if he doesn't finish games. We have no manu ginobili type player off the bench that warrants val not playing. You might as well start off with small ball if you're going to end with small ball, have an identity.

[Undefeated]

There was one play tonight that defined everything Casey is not/

Actually, Randy Whitman drew it up. In the final five minutes, coming out of a timeout, the Wiz inbounded in the Raps zone, crossed Beal and Webster using a double screen, Wall hits Beal coming off the screen, Beal passes to Nene wideopen driving the baseline. Result: easiest bucket of the night for either team.

I'm convinced Casey can't think in terms of more than one screen, more than one wing crossing sides, his brain can't grasp that kind of offensive complexity.

Yeah, that was a nice 1-4 high alignment by the Wizards. But didn't DeMar trip when he was intended to switch after Amir switched onto Beal curling off the Nene screen? It wouldn't have been that easy had DeMar not fell flat on his face.

[Truthrising]

I'm still perplexed as to why Val continually gets to rot on the bench in the 4th quarter. It's as if he's done something wrong to warrant him not playing, even when he has a monster game.

[DHK]

What I would run?
I would use my bigs.

A) Amir and Val have underrated post games, I'd give them the ball in the post, give them few chances to operate. Amir has a very nice hook and soft touch around the basket and a good finish. Val also has a good back to the basket game although it's still unpolished.

B) Run more pick and roll. ever since JC left, Amir's being hung out to dry. through the JC/Amir PnR it was always guaranteed points as it was quite difficutl to stop especially with Amir being one of the best rollers to the basket with glue like hands. Val also has a great PnR Game, that's how they used him effectively in the national team and in Euroleague not sure why they're shying away from that here.

C) The wings. Motion offense. The fact that the play is "Give gay/demar. spectate" is not a good play. Casey also has to recognize that he has two very strong screeners in Val/Amir, and Gay/Demar both have wet mid range games. Why not abuse it? Have them continue run around, get them looks off of curls, make a play taht generates space for them instead of having a pre-set spacing layout and telling them to generate.

D) Adapt. They're packing the paint? Bring in your best shooters. bring in bargs to strech them out to force them to crawl out of their tight spaces, He does figure it out, but by the time he does, it's too late the opponent has made a run. He's terrible at in-game adaptations on offensive schemes

A) Jonas (.76PPP) doesnt have a good post game. Amir has great PPP, but his actual post moves arent great, but again I dont know how they accumulate these stats, via synergy.

B) PnR was the bread and butter under Jose, because he was great at finding the curling man. This isnt something Lowry, nor JL3 are great at. Having said that, we run it more than any part of our offense, outside of maybe ISOs, and finish with it (per synergy) second only to spot up shooting. We also run it more than most teams, specifically another perimeter oriented team, OKC.

C) This isnt wet midrange games.




The problem is theres no spacing when teams pack in the midrange game because theres no shooters to "space" the floor.

D) Who are the best shooters? JL3/AA/Lowry, so you want small ball? please start bringing that up to everyone.

This team is what it is, a bad amalgamation of talent, but scapegoat Casey all you want I guess.

A) The problem with statistics is that it doesnt look at the total picture, Val was struggling with his post game earlier in the season, forcing the issue on hand but over time, he's been able to slowly increase his efficiency from that area and again, while its' still unpolished it's solid overall.

B) Is that statistic an accumulation of the entire season or the stretch since Gay has come in? It makes a big difference. Of course with JC on hand, we ran the PnR over and over because that's what he's best at. With his departure, I feel we've really shied away from it all relying on more flexes, and isos to generate our points. Our players arent seasoned vets, they dont necessarily have the highest bball IQ so they arent able to adapt/read the situation and make the best decision on the fly , why not settle for an easy play with the PnR (with this not being a chellenging statement of course)

c) I look at that statistic and see that it's an accumulation of any shot taken within that range. A lot of them being contested, some of them bail outs etc. I dont know if there's a site that provides extremely specific stats but I'd like to see how their percentages look on quick triggers come off of screens. A lot of times Demar/Gay force the situation (although Demar' has been steadily improving in this department) and rather take that awkward looking fadeaway or angled jumper than passing it off to where the help comes from/swinging it back out.

d) It was referring to a specific situation on hand but yes, I've commented before about how we really lack shooters. Although you do make a case in pointing out a fundamental flaw within the roster, that still doesn't discount his inability to make quick adaptations to the opponent coach's strategies.

[buckzxl]

Could anyone find our rebound stats for the 4th quarter?

[vini_vidi_vici]

A) The problem with statistics is that it doesnt look at the total picture, Val was struggling with his post game earlier in the season, forcing the issue on hand but over time, he's been able to slowly increase his efficiency from that area and again, while its' still unpolished it's solid overall.

B) Is that statistic an accumulation of the entire season or the stretch since Gay has come in? It makes a big difference. Of course with JC on hand, we ran the PnR over and over because that's what he's best at. With his departure, I feel we've really shied away from it all relying on more flexes, and isos to generate our points. Our players arent seasoned vets, they dont necessarily have the highest bball IQ so they arent able to adapt/read the situation and make the best decision on the fly , why not settle for an easy play with the PnR (with this not being a chellenging statement of course)

c) I look at that statistic and see that it's an accumulation of any shot taken within that range. A lot of them being contested, some of them bail outs etc. I dont know if there's a site that provides extremely specific stats but I'd like to see how their percentages look on quick triggers come off of screens. A lot of times Demar/Gay force the situation (although Demar' has been steadily improving in this department) and rather take that awkward looking fadeaway or angled jumper than passing it off to where the help comes from/swinging it back out.

d) It was referring to a specific situation on hand but yes, I've commented before about how we really lack shooters. Although you do make a case in pointing out a fundamental flaw within the roster, that still doesn't discount his inability to make quick adaptations to the opponent coach's strategies.

Look thats alot of narrative, and playing devils advocate I could poke alot holes in these if you want, but I dont want to argue sementics.

This team as currently constructed, and even previous to that, with DD/Lowry/Caldy being the "creators" has been a bad mix. Now how do you fix that? not by recreating the wheel, but by getting talents so teams dont expose your biggest weakness. Things like increasing usage with certain players/sets =/= more efficient or "better". The reason we "shied away from it" (the PnR) is because Jose left and thats what we ran because its what he needed to be effective, not Lowry/JL3, so how is that Caseys fault?

So when Casey is forced to use AA because hes their third best 3 pt shooter (and who can actually guard on the perimeter), and people complain because Val or someone isnt playing, I find it tough to blame him. You want Val/Ross to play more/get more touches, why trade the guy who was best at getting them the ball? for a guy who rarely passes and needs USG? Ross playing behind him no less.

This team is what it is, theres going to be tough nights, but this is what we want from within the constructs of the team talent. I didnt like any of the trades going back to acquiring Lowry, but again I love the team and support it irregardless. I gotta go to bed, but take care man.

[dat90zKiD]

Lucas III
Ross
Anderson
Gay
Bargnani


I LOST MY MIND at that exact moment when Casey threw this lineup out... and boy did they bleed

Casey clearly went all-out chucking mode. Bunch of shooters, no distributor, no one to play f'n D
Brick after Brick after BRICK
WSH went on like an 8-2 run or something

And guess who never wanted to call a f****** timeout?

[Rapcity_11]

Run an actual play maybe?

What "actual play" do you suggest running? Please enlighten us.

[Morse Code]

Lucas III
Ross
Anderson
Gay
Bargnani


I LOST MY MIND at that exact moment when Casey threw this lineup out... and boy did they bleed

Casey clearly went all-out chucking mode. Bunch of shooters, no distributor, no one to play f'n D
Brick after Brick after BRICK
WSH went on like an 8-2 run or something

And guess who never wanted to call a f****** timeout?

agreed. I would bet that the majority of fans in the building were thinking the same thing. Why can't we expect common sense from our HC? That lineup was a slap in the face.

[Morse Code]

Run an actual play maybe?

What "actual play" do you suggest running? Please enlighten us.

A post up play for Rudy or DD. Or a stagger screen back door cut from one of our bigs or even fields, who is good at moving without the ball. Both DD and Rudy needed easier shots to get themselves going. What better way than to put them in a post up situation. DD abused Beal in the post when he had the chance. Hell, I would even post up Bargs or Amir on Nene. Casey should be taking advantage of weak defenders on the opposing team. He just runs his normal isos and has zero situational awareness. He's incapable of making adjustments.

[Darknemo2000]

Anderson played the entire fourth. Val still hasn't played. Neither has Fields. Fire Casey.

Defense wasn't the issue and JV isn't exactly Lebron James.

But washington were clearly going harder to the paint in the 4th because Val wasn't there. It allowed them more easy looks.

[ballislife]

Sometimes I think he just scrambles together lineups to get something done... but it never works with the guys he puts together. On top of that, he has NO offensive system... he has a defensive system, but the guys run iso's and pick and rolls, where they don't even look at the roll man. It's such a simple offense that's easy to defend and so damn predictible. His offense and rotations are the reason why we've lost at least 8-10 games.