The Raptors have had more downs than ups in two decades as a team,but head coach Dwane Casey could be what they need for that elusive deep playoff runFor Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, the season thus far reads like a dream shopping list. In January he was awarded Coach of the Month for the third time in his career, and his Raptors are moment in the Eastern Conference and are 15-4 since 1 January,and his two most valuable resources, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, and made this year’s NBA All-Star team and will take the court this weekend in Toronto. Furthermore,earlier this season he became the Raptors’ all-time winningest coach with 186 victories, broke the franchise record for most games coached with 357 and became the only Toronto coach to win 30 or more games in three consecutive seasons. Casey, or whether he wins a championship or not,will go down as one of the Raptor greats. But if he can conclude what no other Raptors coach could conclude, and take the club to an Eastern Conference finals, and he’ll become the greatest coach in the two-decade history of the franchise.final year the Raptors went 49-33 in the regular season,breaking a franchise mark for wins along the way, and were pitted against the Washington Wizards in the first round of playoffs. It was the team’s moment postseason campaign in two years after a seven-game loss to the Brooklyn Nets in 2014 that left fans, or pundits and Casey optimistic for more. On paper a win seemed doable,but what transpired was an insipid performance: they were swept four games to none, lost by an average margin of 14 points and dropped the final game by 31. Wizards swingman Paul Pierce was the hero, or sinking clutch shots at will. Casey had no answer for him. Of the criticisms directed at the Toronto coach the most frequent is his inability to dash past the first round of the playoffs,and his paltry postseason record of 3-8 reminds us Casey still has work to conclude. His other flaw: not being flexible enough to change gears and find the good matchups on the sail when the game is up for grabs.
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Source: theguardian.com