OT: Toronto Fires COTY Winner Dwane Casey
Casey joins George Karl as the only 2 COTY winners to get fired in the same season.
Someone should hire him. It's not his fault his two star players Derozan and Lowry crumble against Lebron and playoff pressure.
The Bucks or Pistons should try to hire him. Casey revamped his offensive approach this year and made the team even better. He maximized Toronto's talent. He can do the same for Detroit or Milwaukee imo.
Toronto, on the other hand, should blow it up and start over or try to get some shooters in a trade for Derozan. Their current dynamic with Lowry and him can't get it done in the playoffs.
Stackhouse or Budenholzer (also got swept by Lebron lol) are the favorites for the Raptors gig.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23471720/toronto-raptors-fire-head-c…
This sort of thing doesn't really seem specfic to the NBA.
I was about to say... if you think NBA coaching carousels are crazy then don't ever think about following European club soccer.
When you let half the teams into the playoffs you eliminate any meaning to the regular season. This decision reflects that and is based off the perceived failures in the playoffs (mainly being swept mutliple years in a row). I think its the wrong decision but the ownership group clearly believed they should have been more competitive when the games actually mattered.
1. What difference does their history of success make? Shouldn't all teams want to win a championship?
2. Seems like you're looking for a reason to dislike the NBA.
I'm not sure that this is the right move, but let me ask you this: Do you prefer teams you like to "hold the course" and not make sudden moves, even if they never win it all? You cool with Wayne Fontes coming back year after year?
It looks to me like either there was a serious behind-the-scenes issue, or the Raptors felt they needed to go in a different direction to win.
If the former, I lack the necessary information to evaluate the move. If the latter, you can certainly defend the firing on these grounds:
The East is never going to be this easy to win again. The Celtics, with Brad Stevens, were missing its top two players. The Sixers have a boatload of young talent. The Cavs are a bunch of spare parts and Lebron. If the Raptors can't even look competitive in the second round in this situation, and they didn't, then the team as currently constituted isn't going to. Changes are needed.
I'm not sure if it's the right move, but I can at least understand it. It's not like this doesn't happen in the NFL (Andy Reid, Marty Schottenheimer, etc), College football (Mark Richt, etc) NHL (Ken Hitchcock, etc), and MLB (Grady Little!). Sometimes teams think they need to retool to reach the promised land, and sometimes the coach is one of the tools that gets sold in the yard sale.
I know they were the #1 seed but they basically were the same team as last year but twice as many teams were tanking so the record looks shinier. That combined with the same playoff failure means they're just treading water with him.
Not going to be easy to remake that squad quickly. They were already 4th in 3PA/game so it's not like this is a team that just wasn't embracing modern basketball.
Yes, it literally is his fault. That's the burden of being a CEO/Head Coach/Leader. The buck stops there.
Not saying it was the right move to fire him. But when you lead an organization, you must take credit for all outcomes, good or bad.
Hmm. Looks like Wall St. needs to have that lesson. Oh wait.
The buck stops at the CEO? The GM? The Coach?
It stops wherever you want it to stop. But if the argument is "the buck stops with the leader", then the CEO should be fired every time something bad happens.
In any case, I find this an accurate description of capitalism:
Shit rolls downhill; profits roll up.
That's not always a recipe for success.
Billy Donovan was a hot college coach who is not regarded that highly in the NBA.
Then of course you have your Rick Pitino and Calipari examples.
had a fascinating career. A mediocre stint at Mizzou ending in NCAA violations. 10 years later he's the head coach of Utah and doing, by all accounts, a great job.
Which is a terrible way to do this IMO. If they did a ranking/points system Stevens and Popovich would have done much better.
I thought Toronto had pretty good players but they play pretty bad defense are are nowhere near physical enough to go far in the playoffs. Lebron and Co. flat out bullied them.
Toronto gave up the 5th fewest pts per possession during the regular season. But Anunoby and Siakam - their two best wing defenders - were always gonna get an education form LeBron in this series. Physically, they're about as good of a matchup as you can hope for in a defender, but they're both green, and there just isn't anyone in the league who isn't going to get either bullied or blown by against Playoff Bron. Combine that with Cleveland's supporting cast shooting extremely well and Lowry & DeRozan having their souls snatched, and we get the series that we saw.
Casey was COTY for the regular season. He had a deep bench and played 10 guys guys plenty of minutes to get the #1 seed. He has to learn that in the playoffs (cue Jim Mora) that you only go 7 deep and play your stars. His 9 an 10 guys were playing 15 minutes and thats why they got swept. He should be fired and they need to get a coach who knows how to coach in the playoffs.
suddenly figured a number of things out--a perfect storm. They did look like they had quit on Casey in the final game, but I might have quit on Casey, too. The Raptors came out competitive for ten minutes, then Cleveland jumped into a higher gear.
Make no mistake, what Cleveland has done so far is impressive as hell.
Lol no.
Brett Brown was the reason Philly even got to a 3 seed. Stevens outcoaches most of the league.
If there isn't improvement next year, then we'll talk.
Is Dwayne Casey a bad coach? I've heard of COTY getting fired before, but only in cases like George Karl, who is a real jerk towards his players. It seems ridiculous to fire a coach after getting the top seed. Sure the Raptors got swept, but Cleveland shot ridiculously well in the series. Somebody's going to get a good coach.
Makes sense.
Just one of the many reasons I can’t stand that league!