The Toronto Raptors have now been apart of two game sevens in franchise history. Both games they lost by a single point in which they had the final possession. One of those final plays was drawn up to perfection, and executed perfectly, but the shot didn’t fall. The other could have been drawn up perfectly, executed perfectly, and possibly a win for the Raptors. However, a bonehead mistake from the head coach cost the Raptors a series win.
Can you guess which play fell short from perfect and which was the bonehead mistake?
The 2001 game tying shot by Vince Carter in game seven of the second round versus Philadelphia 76ers was the play that was almost perfect. Carter got separated from his defender which gave him room to receive the pass. A pump fake got the defender in the air, but Carter unfortunately missed the shot.
The play that wasn’t even close to perfect came this past Sunday when the Raptors entered the Franchise’s second ever game seven. A chance to clinch their first series victory since 2001 versus the Brooklyn Nets. Down 104-103 in the dying seconds of the game Raptors Terrence Ross stole the ball off an inbound play from the Nets. Ross threw the ball off Paul Pierce to gain possession.
That whole play took place on the far side of the court away from the benches. Therefore, a timeout by the Raptors (which they took) would move the ball up past mid-court, but still on the side of the court away from the benches. Any person who has been watching, playing, or coaching basketball for his career should know that, but for some reason head coach of the Raptors Dwane Casey did not.
Casey drew up the play as if the Raptors would be inbounding from the side of the court close to the benches. Greivis Vasquez of the Raptors is standing near the Nets bench to inbound while the referee is on the other side of the court with the ball. Then Vasquez and the Raptors realize their error and that they are inbounding from the other side. Vasquez then makes the walk over and his teammates also change sides.
Don’t believe me, here’s the video of the last play. Watch as Vasquez and the Raptors realize that the ball isn’t going to be in-bounded from where they thought and they make the switch late with no timeouts remaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMFDIYbOh7M
It seems the original play was designed for Vasquez to inbound from the top of the screen, as Kyle Lowry comes off the picks to get the ball at the top of the three point line. Which then leads to Lowry driving to the right, which is his strong side. However, with the Raptors having to switch sides Vasquez now in-bounds from the bottom of the screen and Lowry is forced to go left. His weak hand.
Obviously this can’t all go on Casey. The assistant coaches and players also should have realized where they would be in-bounding the ball from. However, as head coach, Casey should not have made such a crucial error so late in the game. It was something so simple gone so wrong.
A day after the bonehead move from Casey the Raptors handed the 57-year old a new three-year contract at $4 million per. Many, if not all would say Casey is deserving of this contract and many signs point to that being the case.
After a 6-12 start the Raptors finished 48-34. Good enough for the third seed in the Eastern Conference and their second Atlantic Division title. Casey has also been a huge factor in the growth of DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas. The young core of the Raptors future.
The biggest positive affect Casey has had is on Lowry. The Raptors star point guard is set to be a free agent this summer and in many eye’s the Raptors need to re-sign him. No matter what it takes. Throughout Lowry’s career he has been known to have a bit of an attitude and issues with his coach’s. However, Casey has been able to work with Lowry and they have become a solid coach-point guard duo.
The issues with Casey aren’t off the court. He’s built one great culture in the locker room. A culture that the Raptors seem to have been missing for awhile. However, there have been issues on the court that have gone unnoticed, because when a team is winning and players are succeeding everyone seems to miss the little things of the game. But, when a team is losing fingers are pointed at the coaching. No matter what sport. No doubt the Raptors have had one surprise year and have surpassed expectations, but it wasn’t all perfect.
The Raptors offense averaged 101.3 points per game during the season. Good enough for 13th in the league. During the playoffs that offense dropped to 96.1 points per game versus the Nets. Good enough for 11th out of 16 teams.
The issue wasn’t scoring though. The Raptors found ways to score with their team chemistry. If you’ve watched the Raptors over this past season you would know their offense is built on ball movement, but that’s just simple basketball. A head coach must decide if his team is going to be a fast break offense that pushes the ball or if they are going to play the half-court. Casey for the most part had the Raptors play at a half-court set. That being said, a half-court set is designed for the offense to have multiple looks and plays. The Raptors didn’t have that. They lived and died by the pick and roll.
If you watched closely late into the series versus the Nets, the Raptors offense was being pushed further up by Brooklyn to slow their pick and roll down. That led to the Raptors playing a lot of isolation basketball, or should I say iso-DeRozan. Ask the Atlanta Hawks from a few years back with Joe Johnson. Isolations don’t cut it in the playoffs and Casey never made enough adjustments to make it easier on his young offense.
There were times the Raptors would get the ball in a post-up situation for their big men, mostly Valanciunas. But when the play would be in the post the other four offensive players would just stand around and wait for the ball to be passed back out. Which led right back to the pick and roll, but this time in a late shot clock situation.
Casey got his players to improve their skills and gain confidence, but his offensive plays of just pick and roll will never allow the Raptors to make a deep playoff run.
Casey, however, has been known as a defensive coach, so if the Raptors begin to play defense they’ll be okay offensively. During the series versus the Nets, the Raptors allowed Brooklyn to shoot 46% from the field. That is the fourth worst in the playoffs, only ahead of Golden State, Charlotte (who played Miami) and Dallas. However, during the season the Raptors were top 10 in both points allowed per game and opposing teams field goal percentage.
It’s not that Casey isn’t a good coach. He’s a great assistant coach. He proved that in Dallas when he was assistant to Rick Carlisle and his defense helped win an NBA Championship in 2011. Casey’s defensive style will grow on this young Raptors team, because defense in the NBA is about experience. Till Casey can truly build an offense with more than pick and rolls, this team will struggle to win in the playoffs. Going back to that final play in game seven, the Raptors finished the season (including the Nets series) with a record of 10-16 in games that finished with a difference of five points or less.
Casey’s new contract is a good investment by the Raptors. As next season this franchise could take a step back in the win-loss column, but over Casey’s next three years the Raptors will need to grow and so will Casey. A chance to grow is what Dwane Casey really hasn’t had the opportunity to do as a Head Coach in the NBA. He’s finally getting his chance and it’s time for him to prove himself. However, if Casey doesn’t learn from his mistakes and grow as a coach this Raptors team may never get out of the first round under his coaching system.
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