The milestone is right there on the horizon for Dwane Casey. Currently in possession of the best winning percentage of any Raptors head coach at .470 (113-127), Casey needs just one more victory to pass Lenny Wilkens and move into sole possession of second place on the Raptors all-time coaching wins list.
Throw out the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season—Casey’s first with the club—where training camp lasted a little more than a week (very little time to implement a new defensive-minded system), and he would be six games above .500.
But 2011-12 did happen, and even though the Raptors finished 23-43, Toronto’s front office picked up the option on Casey’s contract, still two seasons away at that point. Management could see progress, both because the team had managed one more win than under Jay Triano the season before (in 16 fewer games) and because many of the losses were closely contested by a Toronto club playing hard with a defined system at the defensive end. Fresh off a championship with Dallas—and credited as the man responsible for designing a defensive system capable of containing Miami’s Big 3—Casey was slowly but clearly changing the team’s culture.
Following his first win as Raptors head coach, in a media scrum outside the visitor’s locker room in Cleveland, Casey gave those assembled a good look at what he was all about as a coach. He praised his team for their play before shifting to a topic he’s still discussing today: the room his team had for continued growth and improvement.
“We’re haven’t done anything yet” and “we have to keep growing” have since become the most familiar refrains from the self-described small town Kentucky guy.
Casey has been the model of consistency during his tenure in Toronto, never climbing too high after wins or sinking too low after losses.
Exhibit A: As his team prepared for one of its toughest tests of the season against the league-leading Memphis Grizzlies, Casey put the matchup in context. It was only game 11 of 82, he said. “That’s what this is. It doesn’t make or break your season. I’m not going to go jump off a building if something [bad] happens, and I’m not going to jump up and down and do snow angels if we win. It goes both ways.”
Players value that kind of even-keeled attitude. When the message is consistent, players know what is expected and what they’re going to get when they come to work every day. That—among many other things—is what Casey provides the Raptors.
“Case has been the same guy since he got here,” all-star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan remarked with a smile when asked about Casey last season with the team turning the corner following a major trade.
Exhibit B: Following a loss in his first year in Toronto, Casey benched James Johnson (less mature in his first stint with the Raptors) for failing to carrying out his assigned duties. Neither Johnson nor his Coach was too happy with the turn of events, Casey because of what he’d seen on the court and Johnson for being banished to the bench. But the next day—in Orlando on the second half of a back-to-back—there was Casey, at the arena long before anyone arrived for the game, working with Johnson out on the floor. Rather than let his player stew about the previous night and wonder what the future held, Casey was dealing with the issue out in the open. No hard feelings, just a consistent drive to improve.
If you listen to Casey discuss his coaching philosophy at a camp or clinic, you understand closely tied he is to his craft. He’s a lifer and he understands that patience is part of the package when coaching—something he’s practiced far more than he’s preached.
Casey deflects credit when the fact that he’s about to pass Wilkens is raised. He tends to shift the conversation to Wilkens and what his predecessor has done for the coaching profession. Still, some time in the near future, Casey more into second place and begin the steady climb toward Sam Mitchell’s franchise-leading 156 wins.
Not bad for a guy that some fans wanted out the door as recently as last year. Not bad for a guy who was coaching in the final year of his contract when many wanted the Raptors to tank for a superstar-in-the-making named Andrew Wiggins.
Just don’t expect any acknowledgement of success from Casey. After all, there’s always more to be done.