Monday June 20 2011 – 1:26pm Eastern – Toronto, ON
Is Dwane Casey the next head coach of the Toronto Raptors?
It certainly looks that way.
Veteran Mavericks writer, Eddie Sefko, reported on Dallasnews.com within the last hour that sources are telling him that Casey has been hired by the Raptors.
Nothing is official yet though. The news has NOT be confirmed by the Raptors.
I first wrote about Casey on the day that is was announced that Jay Triano would not be back as lead man in T.O. next season. And I speculated late last week that all signs were pointing to Casey being the next bench boss for the Raptors.
Casey was scheduled to join me (and Paul Jones) on the “Hoops” show last Thursday before cancelling at the last minute. He originally flew to Toronto early last week to meet with Bryan Colangelo and his management team, following the Mavericks’ Game 6 series-clinching win over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
Casey, Dallas’ top assistant and the man largely credited for helping turn around the defence in Big D, is one of the most respected coaches in the league and many believe he is/was the assistant most-deserving of a head coaching opportunity.
The 54-year-old Kentucky native has been a head coach in the NBA before … leading the Timberwolves to a 33-49 record in 2005-2006, before being dismissed as head coach in Minnesota the following season (Jan. 2007), with a 20-20 record.
Colangelo and his top assistant, Marc Eversley, are in New York today, watching a private workout with NBA draft prospect, Bismack Biyombo. There were not available for comment. Thus, again, the news from Dallasnews.com has yet to be confirmed. The Raptors have not issued any kind of statement or released any information about a pending press conference, but it’s probably safe to assume that if anything goes down, it won’t be until tomorrow – when Colangelo and Eversley return to Toronto.
E. Smith
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it will be very interesting to see how the raps perform with an experienced head coach as opposed to Jay Triano. I expect to see a marked improvement in the team even if it stays more or less the same in terms of core personnel.
perhaps this will provide a desperately needed objective standard to finally and clearly evaluate the disaster of a coach that JT really was.
I’m sure, as most of Toronto’s sportscasters and mainstream pundits have asserted as part of their pro-JT rationale, that Triano was a ‘great guy’, but man, what a disaster these last few seasons have been. And thank the b-ball gods that the team chose — against the preference and predictions of the mainstream broadcasters and print media types — a new coaching direction.
- cb