Dwayne Casey's Horrible Coaching

[Mikestro]

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.

Thank goodness someone sensible finally posted in this thread.

It's funny how everyone criticizing Casey just throws out random generic terms like "not enough ball movement" or "too many isos". News flash: ball movement for the sake of ball movement does not necessarily mean good basketball. It depends on the situation and your personnel. ISO plays are run for a REASON. It could be that they're trying to exploit a matchup they know will be favourable for us, or it could be that they know a certain player is weaker defending on one side than the other.

Casey does have his flaws and is not perfect but no coach is except for maybe Coach Pop. You can't just place the blame of our failures solely on Casey.

And LOL @ all the back seat coaches on this board... From the sounds of it a lot of you should already have several rings by now with all of your coaching knowledge.

[witnessraps]

washington ran some beautiful plays down the stretch and Casey got totally outcoached. I hate small ball because if Amir is the only big on the floor they just need to run some sort of screen and roll and there is no one left to protect the basket. Nene had a bunch of easy layups at the end...

[D3158]

washington has an inexperienced point guard, a rookie shooting guard and young players throughout their roster yet they managed to get easy scores for their team at the end of the game. meanwhile the raptors struggled to get anything but contested shots even after timeouts.

Both the teams shot POORLY. So poorly that it's probably their worst FG% in history poorly. The first half, Raps weren't making shot, neither were Wiz - but the rebounded, got 2nd chance points and fast break points. That was the key for them for the 1st half. 3rd Quarter, Raps came back to tie the game only because they did not do what they did in the first half. 4th Quarter, Wiz played so much better defense late in the game and got crucial rebounds and key shots to seal the deal.

Verdict: Both teams played like crap shooting the ball except Wiz played better defense that turned into better offense.

Like Jack and Matt said, you gotta figure out how to get a W when your shots don't fall. They were not 'hungry'. Wiz were. I'm almost positive we'll beat them again.

Edit: Bradley Beal is a beast against the raps this year, it seems. John Wall has tunnel vision like Jon Lucas. The latter can only get you so far. The former is a beast of a rookie. Love his game and Kyrie Irving.

[DonMega]

Really need to get rid of bc man, he literally is **** at everything. Maybe if we get a new gm the team will see a light at the end of the tunnel. Horrible coaches every year, horrible contracts, trades (inc gay).

[garbagnani]

his small ball lineups are pathetic. Makes me wonder WTF he is thinking. HE often goes small ball when opposing team has two bigs on the floor, i don't get it.

[RapsFanInVA]

We just need to take mo shats and make mo shats, and force the other team to miss mo shats. Coaching 101.

[cer0_tolerance]

Yea i hate his rotation. we should hire mike brown and move dwane casey as the defence assitant coach, where HE BELONGS at.

[Spacing]

Run an actual play maybe?

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

How about just common sense basketball?

Have guys running off screens, run pick and rolls, pick and pops.... You know .... Fundamentals?

You don't need to be enlightened to know that Casey ball consists of ONLY iso's.

[Spacing]

his small ball lineups are pathetic. Makes me wonder WTF he is thinking. HE often goes small ball when opposing team has two bigs on the floor, i don't get it.

This has been going on all season .... He did it against Denver and we barely squeaked out a win against them missing 3 of their best players.

I started a thread and was chastised by the board for complaining after a win. Now after a loss that thread would have been welcomed with open arms .... LOL... bi-polars gonna bi-polar i guess...

[raptorforlife88]

I don't think people realize how much personnel impacts the offense. Good coaching will get you nowhere if you have inefficient players. The Raptors were a top ten team offensively prior to the Gay deal, and it makes sense that efficiency would drop when you give up two pretty efficient offensive players the other way.

I mean just look at a guy like Sam Mitchell. No one is going to consider him an offensive coach yet his teams were 11th, 5th, 10th, 9th over his seasons here. And that was because we had someone (Bosh) who could carry an offense. Rudy Gay has never been particularly efficient over his career, neither has Derozan or Bargnani. I don't see why people think a new coach would suddenly make them better.

[Spacing]

I don't think people realize how much personnel impacts the offense. Good coaching will get you nowhere if you have inefficient players. The Raptors were a top ten team offensively prior to the Gay deal, and it makes sense that efficiency would drop when you give up two pretty efficient offensive players the other way.

I mean just look at a guy like Sam Mitchell. No one is going to consider him an offensive coach yet his teams were 11th, 5th, 10th, 9th over his seasons here. And that was because we had someone (Bosh) who could carry an offense. Rudy Gay has never been particularly efficient over his career, neither has Derozan or Bargnani. I don't see why people think a new coach would suddenly make them better.

So you are saying Smitch's success is based on Bosh but then go on to say how they came 11th, 5th, 10th, 9th?

That's not success. We have more scorers on this team then we have ever had (DD, Gay, Lowry, Bargs) what we lack are clear offensive sets. How can they be efficient when every play is ISO street ball plays?

[MrJordanXI]

Fire Casey.

When was the last time you've seen an half court offensive set result in an easy basket?
When was the last time the Raptors have scored out of a timeout or deadball scenario?
How many 5 second calls are we going to get called for this year? It's been ridiculous this year.
How is it possible that Alan Anderson gets more play calls than Bargnani? Hell or high water?
I'm not even going to get into his horrible rotations... but Lucas gets WAY too much burn in the 3rd/4th quarter.

I challenge any person who empathizes with Casey to a $100 bet that says anytime Casey has a chance to draw up a play out of a time out that we don't score or even run something remotely resembling a play. I've been consciously watching this over the past few games (for it to even be noticable for me to start taking note says something) that I like my odds.

Rudy's been bailing us out during this win spurt... Casey has got to go.

[raptorforlife88]

So you are saying Smitch's success is based on Bosh but then go on to say how they came 11th, 5th, 10th, 9th?

That's not success. We have more scorers on this team then we have ever had (DD, Gay, Lowry, Bargs) what we lack are clear offensive sets. How can they be efficient when every play is ISO street ball plays?

First I would say that consistently being a top ten team offensively is pretty solid.

And second the scorers you've listed with the exception of Lowry are inefficient and can't shoot very well. We can diagram all the plays in the world and if you have inefficient players it's not going to do you much good. Memphis is a well coached team, and that didn't seem to help Gay much this year.

These guys are scorers, but only because they take a lot of shots to get their points. Good teams have efficient scorers. And really a huge problem is spacing. Teams can just elect to clog the paint since Derozan and Gay can't hit threes and Bargnani's three point shot has been bad for two years.

[mowe]

HELL YES. It's be amazing if we could get SVG (or JVG). But BC isn't giving up on his big coaching signing so soon. And BC will probably be here next year if the Raptors come close to the playoffs.

[Rapcity_11]

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.

They run plenty of post-ups for Gay and DD. Problem is neither guy is great at holding position and have no idea how to deal with double teams. Rudy just spins away from it and takes a fadeaway, and DD usually lets himself get trapped.

The Raps run plenty of staggered screens. What game are you watching? They just aren't successful.

Back door cuts really depend on being viable threats from the outside (or being an elite at cutting like Fields).

Post up Bargs or Amir (two limited post players) on Nene, who is a great post defender? Terrible.

So yeah, you have ZERO realistic suggestions.

[Rapcity_11]

How about just common sense basketball?

Have guys running off screens, run pick and rolls, pick and pops.... You know .... Fundamentals?

So what the Raps run ALL THE DAMN TIME? Seriously, what game are you watching?

You don't need to be enlightened to know that Casey ball consists of ONLY iso's.

10.7% of Raptors possessions end in isolations.

[RapsFanInVA]

How about just common sense basketball?

Have guys running off screens, run pick and rolls, pick and pops.... You know .... Fundamentals?

So what the Raps run ALL THE DAMN TIME? Seriously, what game are you watching?

You don't need to be enlightened to know that Casey ball consists of ONLY iso's.

10.7% of Raptors possessions end in isolations.

Just curious, is that 10.7% for the whole season, or since the Gay trade?

[MikeM]

There is no defense for Casey if you have seen what Popovich was able to do against MIA and CHI without ANY GOOD PLAYERS ON THE ROAD.

Offense is not the same everywhere.

[Rapcity_11]

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.

Thank goodness someone sensible finally posted in this thread.

It's funny how everyone criticizing Casey just throws out random generic terms like "not enough ball movement" or "too many isos". News flash: ball movement for the sake of ball movement does not necessarily mean good basketball. It depends on the situation and your personnel. ISO plays are run for a REASON. It could be that they're trying to exploit a matchup they know will be favourable for us, or it could be that they know a certain player is weaker defending on one side than the other.

Casey does have his flaws and is not perfect but no coach is except for maybe Coach Pop. You can't just place the blame of our failures solely on Casey.

And LOL @ all the back seat coaches on this board... From the sounds of it a lot of you should already have several rings by now with all of your coaching knowledge.

You guys are bang on.

I just want to add that starting 1.5 good passers in the starting lineup also hurts the offense.

Interesting to note that the starting lineup has shown some elite defense since Gay got here. That lineup is only giving up 80 points per 100 in ~86 mins so far.

(And the couple people giving credit to Randy Wittman should be slapped in the face. WASH is beyond bad offensively.)

[Rapcity_11]

Just curious, is that 10.7% for the whole season, or since the Gay trade?

The whole season unfortunately. Don't know where/if we could get splits.