Damn, big mistake in my opinion though the bolded part and making it to the ECF with a depleted team full of disappearing acts was really quite an achievement.
Big mistake but it's the same thing Morey had to do with McHale. It's a lose/lose situation. You overpay or you replace a coach that got you to the ECF.
Comparing Casey to McHale is a mistake, IMO. Casey's not necessarily a genius but he's a really solid, knowledgable basketball coach w' good people skills.
You just described McHale. McHale coached this team to a WCF with Howard and Dmo missing most of the year.
Casey has been instrumental in getting Lowry (and Derozan) to the next level. That alone is worth the extension.
Casey is a really strong defensive coach and his players will go to way for him. His inability to coach offense is his weakness.
[Bane] for you... [/Bane] To me, Casey > McHale. We can of course disagree. Good extension for the Raptors. Their roster is actually stunningly mediocre. No Harden in the mix whatsoever. (No offense to PPat naturally.)
Eh, i really don't like this argument, which is also used a lot. Young players just develop with time, i don't think this is necessarily a good job by the coach...i mean, Derozan and Lowry are not exactly better players than two years ago, they have still the same bad shot selection, they are not better/smarter passers/scorers...they score more just because they are the two go to guys in that team, who else should score? Vala probably, but he doesn't have the status and coach support to have more touches (like he should). And by the way you can say the same of basically all the coaches around, McHale did a great job with Parsons, Corbin did a great job with Hayward, Vinny did a great job with Noah, Fisher did a great job with Porzingis and on...i mean, these are all known as bad coaches...in the end, players just develop, if they are good they get better, most of times i don't think the coach has that kind of impact, maybe only in some particular cases.
this extension is a tough call for me. on the one hand, you pretty much have to do it. basically no one goes to the conference finals and then fires the coach in the offseason (you have to wait 11 games for that ). on the other hand, is casey that great? the biggest plus for casey is that it's hard to look at their roster and explain them winning 56 games. the east may not have any good top teams to keep lebron from making the finals every year, but overall they were just as good as the west this year, and you get your wins against the overall conference. so he basically got more wins than the thunder in an equal conference. now granted, toronto probably maxed out on wins and the thunder probably minimized their wins with their absurd number of blown 4th quarter leads, but still, he had lowry and derozan and won more than westbrook and durant. this isn't a "just roll the ball out there and let them play and they'll win 56 games" type of roster. a minus is that his offensive system makes it pretty clear he's no offensive genius. they just iso two good players over and over. therefore, he seems to just be a perfectly adequate and completely uninspiring coach. which you could argue you should never settle for, but given that there are probably 20-22 completely uninspiring (or worse) coaches at any given moment, the odds say that firing your uninspiring coach will probably just get you another uninspiring coach. and at least casey is already connected to the team and they play hard for him so you don't have to go through that like with a new coach. and then there's the playoffs. not a great resume. but also obviously very hamstrung by having 2 stars who have just collapsed in the playoffs several times. how much can any coach overcome that? you could argue he is partially to blame with his weak offensive system, but plenty of stars have played in weak offensive systems and not fallen off a cliff in the playoffs. so maybe he should be praised for getting 2 mentally-fragile, up-and-down, shooting-terribly stars to the ECF, even in a weak playoff field. ultimately though, when i look at toronto, unless they just really knock their #9 pick out of the park this year, they probably aren't getting a lot more talented. this isn't a young team on the rise. the stars are in their prime, the role players are in their prime or old. biyombo is the only exception, and based on what i heard on a podcast, i think the only way they can sign derozan and biyombo is to give someone else up, although i'm not sure if that is from a CBA perspective or from a luxury tax perspective. this team will probably be lucky just to stay at 56 wins and making the ECF. and whether you coach a bad team or a good team, pretty much the worst thing you can do from the perspective of keeping your job is to stall or go backwards. no one cares if you win 25 games after winning 20 the year before, but only make it to the 2nd round after the ECF and "the team needs a new voice" and "the team has tuned you out". so in summary, toronto had to sign him, it's probably not the worst thing in the world to sign him, and he'll probably be fired 1 or maybe 2 years from now.
The thing is, they still could've had him for a year and see what he does as they still had him for 16-17. Same like McHale, an early extension which was not necessary though I get making it to the ECF and the year they've had, you would want that coach to be comfortable and not worry about a job the year after. Regardless, the team is going to make a slight overhaul I would hope (extending DeRozan would be the dumbest since two chuckers is not going to have you win big, S&T hopefully or just go after bigger game) and you would like to see some change as some have acknowledged that the Raptors very likely maxed out with this roster.
You seemed to have left out Valancuinas, who is poised to take a big step next year. Masai, Casey and even Demar/Kyle themselves have all came out and stated that he'll have a bigger role next year. Raptors will have a legit big three. Also, if we re-sign Demar, Biyombo is likely gone. I agree w/ your Casey analysis. I'm fine with the extension, especially since there are really no better alternatives atm.
Jonas just turned 24. People seem to forget that he was our best player these playoffs before he went down with the ankle injury. I don't think they've maxed out, yet. Jonas is just scratching the surface of his potential.
