Dwane Casey doesn’t have much time for Las Vegas. It’s not that he dislikes it, he’s just not inclined towards what it offers. He doesn’t gamble. He’s not a big drinker and has no urge to party. His wife might do a bit of shopping but she is also not swayed by the glitz, glamour, and gravitas nature of it all.
The workman-like Casey is such a meat-and-potatoes type that a well-aged steak and some frites at one of the strip’s fine restaurants was about as leisurely as it got for he and his staff at the NBA Summer League in Nevada this summer. That’s because Summer League is a business trip for the Raptors coach. The main bulletin on his agenda is rectifying a defense that has deteriorated over the last 24 months. After finishing ninth defensively in 2013, Toronto fell to 23rd after making few roster changes last season. They got worse as the campaign wore on, ranking a lowly 26th after Thanksgiving.
On the other side of the ball, the team appears to be in good shape but Casey believes their offence is causing some of their defensive issues.
The game film shows that many of their defensive breakdowns started when they were still in possession of the ball. “We have to get back to ball movement, man movement. When everyone is involved, engaged, tied to a rope,” Casey says with an eye on next week’s training camp. “That transfers to the defensive unit. We have more energy but you also are more balanced positionally.”
In last year’s edition of the offence, the team leaned heavily on their guards’ creation rather than ball and man movement. According to SportVU tracking data, which the Raptors use frequently, Toronto ranked 24th in passes made in 2014-15.
Casey is concerned about the offensive process more so than the production, “The first shot isn’t always the best shot. People judge a shot on whether or not it goes in. I judge a shot on how it was created.”
That lack of ball movement meant many quick and long shots. The lack of balance offensively and long rebounds meant that in transition, the Raptors were often caught in cross match-ups and starting defensive possessions at a disadvantage.
The Raptors have upgraded defensively this off-season, thanks to a trio of defensive-minded free agents in DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, and Bismack Biyombo. But creativity will still be called upon to get stops.
Casey is counter intuitive by nature. So don’t be surprised when you see the Raptors play small ball— for defensive purposes. If Carroll can steal some minutes playing at the 4, then you’ve got essentially four players on the court (Carroll and three of Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Cory Joseph, and potentially rookies Delon Wright and Norman Powell) at the same time that can switch on pick and rolls and stop backcourt dribble penetration. James Johnson, too, will also be utilized once again as an undersized four.
A few years ago, the Miami Heat were very effective when they played Shane Battier at power forward, knowing that few teams in the East had a back to the basket big man that could punish them for doing so.
Casey is right to stress defense, as that has kept the Raptors from creeping into the upper echelon of the league and has long-been the secret to championship success. Since 2007, every team that went on to win the NBA championship finished better than seventh in defensive rating during the regular season.
In practices at Summer League, the vast majority of instruction is focused on defense. The whistle only leaves Casey’s mouth to speak or, more accurately, bark. “Talk, talk, stay big,” he screams to his centers, whom he expects to quarterback the defense. Defensive orders are closer to commands than suggestions. Despite the fact that he’s calling the shots, he’s not afraid to get in and take some, jumping into a drill to illustrate how to make the angle of the entry pass difficult when fronting the post, jumping towards the opposite side of the key to detail how the weak side defender needs to see ball and man simultaneously so he’s ready to rotate and help if that front side entry pass is successful over the top. No minute detail— leverage, knee flexion, hand placement, spacing, terminology, rules—is overlooked.
In doing so, Casey is trying to institute an organizational culture, rather than a present-day tactic. Which is why when he addresses his two rookies, Wright and Powell, notorious defensive stoppers at college, he’s merely preaching to the choir.
Yet there is urgency in his voice. It would be a stretch to say he’s starting the season on the hot seat, but any coach whose team was swept and embarrassed in the first round by a cumulative 56 points like the 2014-15 Raptors were can’t feel comfortable.
So Casey has kept his job but didn’t get to keep his fun, shiny offensive toys. Instead he was given Tonka truck-like defenders. For a man who earned a reputation in the NBA off his defensive acumen, that suits him just fine.
“This is the most talent we’ve had,” he says when asked about his depth on defense, “without a doubt.”
Rather than calling upon scorers off the bench like Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams and Greivis Vazquez, Casey is now equipped with players known best for their work without the ball in their hands.
Taking the bulk of the departed backcourt minutes will be Canadian Cory Joseph. His former team, the San Antonio Spurs, were better defensively when he was on the court, producing a defensive rating of 98.3 to go with his personal 0.93 defensive real plus-minus rating, which was 8th amongst point guards.
Off the court the team’s defensive outlook appears to have improved, too, as Andy Greer, who spent the last five seasons helping to run Tom Thibodeau’s defense in Chicago, has been added to Casey’s staff.
The 49 regular season wins Casey delivered last year were the most in franchise history, but four straight first round losses to a lower seed meant the blogosphere was asking for change and Casey was often the target. Of the Raptors’ three Atlantic division titles, they’ve failed to follow any of them up with a series win. Since their inaugural season 20 years ago they’ve never won a best-of-seven series. The fan base is growing tired of mediocrity being the ceiling. Casey encourages them to enjoy the ride. “Getting to the mountain top is special,” he says, “because it was hard to get there. Sometimes it seemed impossible and not everybody is willing [but] in this organization I’m surrounded by people who are willing to do what it takes to get there. So the fans can take solace in that. But you can’t fast track it. You can just put one foot in front of the other.”
Casey has set his sights on designing a defense so stuck in his convictions he’s willing to defend the Raptors dismal post season and subsequent reactionary offseason. He knows it is part of the journey.
