http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Rockets-are-after-Dallas-assistant-Dwane-Casey-?urn=nba-wp1852 Dallas Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey has been the one who has gotten away for far too long, and it appears he might have yet another chance at a head coaching slot. ESPN's Marc Stein, who is in touch with all things Dallas-y, is reporting that the Mavericks have allowed Houston the chance to interview Casey for the Rockets' open head-coaching job. There is a catch, before we can send the well-regarded assistant over to Houston in order to mold Daryl Morey's group of "pretty good's" into the next big thing. For one, the Mavs have requested that the Rox keep their prized assistant (and believe me, Rick Carlisle does prize Casey quite a bit) out of the interview room until after the team's first-round series with Portland. Secondly, the Rockets (according to Stein) are in no hurry to make an offer even if Casey wows them right off the bat, as they wait out the postseason for other potential coaches to be ushered out of their current jobs. Especially if they work in potential coaches working in Orlando, right now. Casey is best known as the former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach who had the pleasure of leading a terrible supporting cast plus Kevin Garnett(notes) to a 20-20 record in 2006-07 before being fired. His replacement, Randy Wittman, managed a 12-30 record after Casey was let go. Cruelly, Casey was passed over by both the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers for jobs that eventually went to Vinny Del Negro, and he missed a chance to coach the Atlanta Hawks last season when the Hawks decided to go in-house with their hire. And we see how well that turned out. This is a legitimate, knockout head-man-in-waiting whose basketball pedigree runs deep. While I usually wouldn't turn down the chance to have Stan Van Gundy coach my team, a person like Dwane Casey would at least give me pause.
I dont remember much about Casey from Minny and didnt even realize he was in Dallas (I hate that place and all their teams.) You mention Stan Van Grundy - I dont get why everyone is so enamoured with the guy. Sure , he has the reputation as a good defensive coach but he has Howard - the DPOY anchoring a team that just isnt very good defensively. Offensively they are predictable and un-imaginative. Atlanta has exposed them while Van Gundy has yet to make the adjustments to keep them in the series. They lost a game in which Howard went for 46 and 19 while shooting ~70% from the field. Please keep SVG Orlando .... Send us Superman instead.
Casey is not a bad coach @ all. He is like what Lawrence Frank is to the Celtics. A Defensive Coordinator who helped the Mavs D improve. He was the Head Coach of a TWolves team that was terrible at the time so maybe he deserves a shot here
It's good to hear we have so many options out there... this sounds solid. I'd be pretty content with Mike Brown(coach of the year 08-09)... I trust our FO to find a coach who can turn our young team into something special..(Lowry, Lee, Bud, T-Will, PPat, J-Hill, Thabeet), I kno for a fact theres at least 2 maybe 3 of those guys that can make the jump to legit starters or maybe even borderline all-stars. Let's get to work!!
Its funny how they fired dwane for another coach but the record got worse :L stupid minny management AHAHA!
Casey is one of the few guys I would give a solid thumbs up to. Very good match for where we are and what we're doing.
I hope the Rockets can immediately address the coaching vacancy so They can proceed in building the team. It is always best to have the coach set before player movements are done.
It made no sense that he lost out to Vinny Del Negro for the Bulls and Clippers coaching jobs. I cannot understand why he hasn't gotten another head coaching position. I'm glad Morey will give him a close look.
Eh... With that logic, JVG must have been a horrible defensive coach too because he had Yao with Mutombo backing him up.
This. Casey's is the first name is this whole situation that gave me a bit of optimism. He's not Adelman, but given a good chance, he could turn into someone of that caliber. And like you say, he's a great fit for "where we are," which is as close to rebuilding as you can get but with pretty good and solid pieces to start with.
Dwane Casey would be a great coach for several reasons: 1: He has been a head coach before. He even had coached big stars, and handled it very well in coaching Kevin Garnett. 2: His resume is short and lacking-in-big-accolades enough for Morey to have a short leash on him without any sort of conflict and friction like what we've seen between Morey and Adelman. Casey is competent, but he does not have the history to back it up, and therefore his ego would not extend so far as to not consider the strategies and directions of the GM. Mike Brown, Stan van Gundy, would not want to bow down to a 30-something fat white nerd.
Anyone that says they'd be happy w Mike Brown is not paying very much attention. The guy is garbage. That should have been LeBron's award, not his.
Dwane Casey seems like he fits with the Rockets. Not necessarily a big name, but he showed he was a smart and solid coach in his previous stop. I agree it would be a good hire.
Casey sounds like one of the better coaching prospects, IMHO. I don't think he really got a fair shake in Min (unlike Mike Brown in Cle. or Woodson in Atl.) yet he's been around the game for a long time and does have a bit of HC experience.
