J-Speaks: The Raptors Lose to Cavs Again and Axe Coach Casey

Entering the 2018 NBA Playoffs, the Toronto Raptors put themselves in the best position to make a run for the NBA Finals for the first time in their franchise history. They won a franchise record 59 games, earning the No. 1 Seed in the East for the first time in franchise history. They changed their offensive style to fit the current NBA where they rely on ball movement and take a lot more three-pointers. The supporting cast raise their level of play offensively to where the Raptors were not relying on their All-Star backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. Unfortunately, all those dreams of making the Finals were dashed as the Raptors for the third straight postseason were sent home by the three-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers, which resulted in one major change to their team. 

The Raptors season was concluded last Monday night 128-93 in Game 4 of the Semifinals as the Cavs for the second straight season swept the team whose mantra is “We the North” 4-0, who lost their 10^th straight postseason defeat to the four-time Central Division champions. 

Unexpectedly four days later the Raptors fired head coach Dwane Casey after seven season, where he compiled a 320-238 mark during the regular season. 

The news was first broken by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and confirmed in a statement by the Raptors and their general manager Masai Ujiri. 

“After careful consideration, I have decided this is very difficult but necessary step the franchise must take. As a team, we are constantly trying to grow and improve in order to get to the next level,” he said in that statement on Thursday. “We celebrate everything Dwane has done for the organization, we thank him, and wish him nothing but the best in the future. He was instrumental in creating the identity and culture of who we are as a team, and we are so proud of that.”

Casey had been seeking a contract extension from the Raptors in an effort to maintain job security, according to a tweet from USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt. Zillgitt also said in that tweet that Casey seeking an extension tied the Raptors hands and forced Ujiri into the decision he made. 

Ujiri meet with the media on Friday to address the firing of Casey telling reporters that he and Casey had been meeting every day since the Cavs swept the Raptors and that said he called DeRozan and Lowry to let them know of what the team was going to do. 

The team per Ujiri plan to keep the remainder of the coaching staff of assistants Nick Nurse, who the organization is strongly considering as their next head coach, Rex Kalamian, Jama Mahalela, Jamaal Magloire, Alex McKechnie, Jerry Stackhouse, the head coach of the Raptors’ G-League affiliate Raptors 905 and trainer Scott McCullough. 

Casey, who was named the eighth head coach in team history on June 21, 2011, posting as previously mentioned winning a 320, the most regular season wins in Raptors history, equating to a .573 winning percentage in those seven seasons, which included the only 50-win seasons in Raptors history. Casey, the longest tenured head coach in Raptors history guided the team to won four Atlantic Division titles, and made five consecutive postseason appearances, also a franchise record.  

The Raptors as mentioned earlier had their best regular season ever winning a franchise record 59 games and earning the No. 1 Seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time in team history. 

But after getting past the No. 8 Seeded Washington Wizards in the Quarterfinals, they had an earlier than expected exit in the Semis as the Cavs for the second straight season swept them out of the playoffs aforementioned 4-0. 

“It hurts. It hurts, just because the season of the season we had,” Casey, whose 21-30 in the postseason with the Raptors said after the Game 4 loss. “A franchise record [59 wins]. Top 5 offense, Top 5 in defense and you know almost like we flipped the switch. So, that’s what’s disappointing as much as anything else. From out coaching staff. Everything we tried to do just didn’t click. That’s the disappointing part.”

Casey postgame statements were on the heels of his candid words a couple of days later about how confident he was that he would be back with the Raptors. 

“Nobody has told me different,” he told reporters. “Until then I’m here still fighting. I’m still here.” 

“I don’t expect a vote of confidence [from Ujiri] … I’ve read all the articles, texts, all this stuff. I understand what’s been said. I’m not in the dark, but I’m not looking for a vote of confidence because I haven’t heard anything different.” 

Casey did state that he recognized how the criticism falls on him after seeing his team completely collapse in the Semis against the Cavs again. 

“It’s part of the business,” he said about getting the axe. “I’m a big boy. I’ve been through it. I know what we’ve accomplished and how the basketball world respects what we’re doing. It’s part of the territory. I accept it. I’m not running from it…I’m an easy target…I don’t feel sorry for myself, let’s put it that way.”

With the Raptors having to now look for a new head coach, the other task on GM Ujiri’s to do list is to look at the roster and see what changes if any need to be made. In essence, the Raptors are in the stage of looking very closely at the team as a whole to see what changes can be made. 

While Casey got the axe in the wake of another failure to get past the Cavs, the Raptors All-Star backcourt in Lowry and DeRozan had another poor showing against the Cavs particularly in Game 4. 

After scoring just eight points on 3/12 shooting and sitting out the final 14 minutes of the Raptors comeback in Game 3, DeRozan had just 13 points with five boards before being ejected for hitting Cavs’ guard Jordan Clarkson in the face as the attempted an open court layup. DeRozan was assessed a Flagrant Two foul and was ejected. 

“Last three years been rough for us competing against this team,” DeRozan, whose team became the first No. 1 Seed since the 2013 Oklahoma City Thunder to not reach the Conference Finals. “Maybe they just got our number. Things just go right for us. Whatever it is, it can be a lot of things. All I know is [the] last three years they [Cavs] have been the reason why we haven’t advanced.” 

He added by saying last Tuesday, “This is probably the toughest, most frustrating, difficult, lowest feeling I’ve had.” “You get to that point where you’re standing firm through everything and you feel like you can’t get knocked down again, and you realize you do get knocked back down again. It’s kind of the worst feeling.”

DeRozan’s backcourt mate in Lowry, who had risen his point level in the first three games of the series from 18 points and 10 assists in Game 1, 21 points and eight assists in Game 2 to 27 points with seven assists in Game 3, was abysmal with just five points on 2 for 7 shooting in the Game 4 loss with 10 assists.  

“It feels a lot different because we felt like we could possibly make the NBA Finals and that was our goal,” a very upset and disappointed Lowry said to reporters on Tuesday. “So, it always been a real goal for us, but this year was like ‘that’s the only thing that matters.’” 

Lowry added that this year was a “wasted” one. “We said it before, for me it was championship or bust and that’s what I really feel. So, waisted year for me.” 

When asked about will it be tough to start the journey again next season Lowry said, “No, because I love the game. I love basketball. I love doing my job and I still want to get that ultimate goal of holding that trophy. So, for me it’s a waisted year, but it’s just a motivation to continue to get better.” 

That Raptors hopes of slaying their arch nemesis in the three-time defending East champion Cavs slipped away from them in Game 1 of the Semis when they blew a 10-point fourth quarter lead, missed what seemed like 100 chippies at the rim in the closing seconds of regulation and lost in overtime 113-112. 

The Raptors nearly rallied from a double-digit deficit in Game 3 two Saturday nights ago, but the game-winning running, tie-breaking runner off the glass from the left at the horn gave the Cavs a 105-103 win and a commanding 3-0 series lead. 

Even though neither Lowry or DeRozan gave a glowing endorsement of coach Casey last Tuesday, they both spoke highly of their now former head coach. 

“All of my success, I have to credit Casey,” DeRozan who led the Raptors with a 22.7 point per game average in the 2017 playoffs said. “No matter what, I’m always going to have the utmost respect when it comes to coach Casey. 

While Lowry and Casey had their moments of indifference over the years, the Philadelphia, PA native said that his former head coach, “always believed in him.” 

“He’s one of the best coaches out there,” Lowry added. 

There is one thing that the Toronto Raptors have in common with a lot of teams, aside from the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs and the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks. They have been on the losing end against LeBron James the past eight seasons whether he has played for the Cavs or the Miami Heat. 

Just ask the Chicago Bulls whose lost to James and the Cavs 4-1 in the First-Round in 2010 and 4-2 in the Semis in 2015. Sandwiched in between those defeats was a five-game setback when he was with the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011 as well as a five-game defeat in the Semis. Those failures led to the ouster of now Minnesota Timberwolves head coach and President of Basketball Operations Tom Thibodeau and eventually either by trade or free agency 2011 league MVP Derrick Rose, All-Star center Joakim Noah, forward Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler. The Bulls have not been back to the Playoffs since as they are now rebuilding. 

The Detroit Pistons, who were the first victim of James and his assent to greatness where he and the Cavs beat them in the 2007 Conference Finals. That dominance began in Game 5 where he scored 25 straight points and 29 of the final 30 points to lead the Cavs to a 109-107 win in double-overtime. Since that Game 5 win, the Pistons have lost 12 straight games in the postseason to James and the Cavs, sweeping them in the opening round of 2009 4-0 and in 2016. 

Another team that has been victimized by James has been the Atlanta Hawks, who too have lost 12 straight postseason games to the Cavs dating back to their 4-0 sweep in the 2009 Semis. The one series that Hawks fans and the team that sticks with them is the 4-0 sweep in the 2015 Conference Finals where the Hawks won 60 games; earned the No. 1 Seed in the East for the first time since the 1993-94 season. They won the Southeast Division for the first time since they were a part of the Central Division, which they won also back in 1994. The Hawks like the Bulls are in the process of rebuilding their team and they have a new head coach in Lloyd Pierce, who replaced the recently fired Mike Budenholzer, who won Coach of the Year four years ago. 

In his first go-around with the Cavs in making the postseason back in 2006, their first appearance since 1998, the Cavs defeated the Washington Wizards in the opening round 4-2. That was the first of three consecutive postseason tilts between the boys from “The Land” and the boys from our nation’s capital. From May 3, 2006 to Apr. 21, 2008, the Cavs beat the Wizards eight straight times in the postseason.

The one team though that got a close-up view of the ascension and then the out of this world greatness of James was the Boston Celtics. The 2011-12 squad led by future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett, now an analyst for TNT, Paul Pierce, who now works for ESPN, Hall of Famer to be Ray Allen, and All-Star guard Rajon Rondo, now with the New Orleans Pelicans and current Los Angeles Clippers head coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers lost to James and the eventual NBA champion Heat in the Conference Finals in seven games. In the Game 6 win 98-79 that got them to Game 7 on June 7, 2012, James had one of those so-called breakthrough games with 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists to help his team tie the series 3-3. 

Dating back to the 2015 opening round tilt between James’ Cavs and the C’s to their meeting in the 2017 Conference Finals, they garnered six straight wins from Apr. 19, 2015 to May 19, 2017. 

The two teams are meeting again in the 2018 Conference Finals and while the Celtics won Game 1 impressively 108-83 on Sunday afternoon, there are many who predict that James’ and the Cavs will eventually win this one and advance to The Finals for the fourth straight season and the eighth straight for James. 

Getting back to the Raptors, the reality for them is that they can replace their head coach, they can even tweak their roster somehow, more on that in a moment, if they keep running into LBJ, the same issue will always be there in the fact that the players on the roster are intimidated, scared, perhaps terrified. 

One of the names that was floated out there to be the next head coach of the Raptors was Budenholzer, he was a part of two sweeps at the hands of James and the Cavaliers. 

If with a new head coach, that will not be enough to solve the Raptors problem in beating the Cavs in the playoffs. In terms of their roster flexibility, DeRozan, Lowry and starting forward Serge Ibaka are under team control through the 2019-20 season. Starting center Jonas Valanciunas is under team control through next season. The Raptors have no money under the cap to improve their roster through free agency and a key player that will command a lot of money is Lowry’s understudy Fred VanVleet, who is a restricted free agent. 

This past season was the best in Raptors history as mentioned going 59-23, earning the No. 1 Seed in the East. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were named to the All-Star team again. Their bench was ranked No. 3 in “The Association” in scoring; No. 2 in assists and minutes played and No. 3 in three-pointers made. However, they failed to get past LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the postseason getting swept in the Semifinals for the second straight season. 

For them with no salary cap space and no draft picks, improvement for the Raptors will have to come from within, particularly from DeRozan and Lowry, who say they will never shy away from the challenge of facing James in the postseason. 

“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. We’ve continuously failed against the team that made The Finals the last three years,” Lowry said. “We weren’t ready to be as physical as we needed to be. We did a great job in the regular season, but [the] playoffs are just different.” 

DeRozan echoed those same thoughts by saying about getting another chance to dethrone James and the Cavs as the top dogs in the Eastern Conference, “As a competitor, we want to go up against that because the story is sweeter once you dethrone a great.” 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/7/18 8:30 p.m. Game 4 of Eastern Conference Semifinals Toronto Raptors versus Cleveland Cavaliers on TNT, presented by Hulu with Ian Eagle, Brent Barry, and Allie LaForce; 5/8/18 2 a.m. edition of NBATV's "Gametime" with Chris Miles, Steve Smith and Isiah Thomas; 5/9/18 www.espn.com article, “Kyle Lowry: Raptors’ No. 1 Seed, 59-win Season ‘Wasted’ with Early Playoff Exit;” 5/11/18 www.nba.com article via twitter and media reports, “Toronto Raptors Part Ways with Coach Dwane Casey;” 5/11/18 3 p.m. "NBA: The Jump," fueled by Marathon with Rachel Nichols, Richard Jefferson and Tracy McGrady;  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cleveland_Cavaliers_seasons; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Miami_Heat_seasons.