Cleveland should hire Casey, he is clearly one of the top coaches in today's league. It's not his fault Lowry and De Rozan are scared of Lebron. It's such a joke Ujiri fired him, there's a limit to what a coach can do on the court. When tip off happens it's all on the players to win the game.
Yeah lets fire one of the best coaches in the league but keep the choking core of low ceiling stars like Lowry and Derozan.
Fair or not, its probably the right move imo. When a team needs to make changes, the coach is usually the first to go. He’ll get another gig.
Their contracts probably makes them unmovable so it's always easier to get rid of the coach if you are trying to shake things up.
That actually would not be a bad trade for Toronto if Minni went for it. DeMar is who he is, Wiggins on the other hand may still have a chance to become a better player if he is given the role. If Raptors hire Mike B, I'd definitely would take the gamble if Minni was willing to tango, which knowing Tom, I bet they would .
I know, its a case of the GM trying not to get fired by firing someone else. "Cant clean up my mess? Make a second to hide the first."
[...] According to Sportsnet's Michael Grange, Ujiri had grown frustrated with Casey's inability to transfer over his regular-season success into the playoffs. There were also internal frustrations about holding DeMar DeRozan accountable on defense. What apparently bothered Ujiri the most, though, was Game 3 of the playoffs when LeBron James tore the hearts out of everybody in Toronto with a game-winning floater off glass. The Raptors didn't double-team James and force the ball out of his hands. This reportedly made Ujiri so mad that he scolded Casey for it mere moments after the game: According to multiple sources the confusion and subsequent lack of execution on the final play was another log on the fire. After the game, Ujiri stormed into the Raptors dressing room at Quicken Loans — just out of sight of most of the players but not out of earshot — and rebuked Casey in the coach's office for failing to double-team James. Ujiri didn't reserve his frustration for just Casey – he also tore into the officials in the hallway as well. But observers noted that the intensity was more than typical for Ujiri, who can run hot at the best of times. This kind of intensity is well known from Ujiri. He walked on the court at halftime of the same game to verbally confront the refs for some of their calls, which led to him being fined. However, that intensity is related to his frustrations with Casey reaching a boiling point. He called firing Casey the hardest thing he ever had to do. Makes plenty of sense because Casey is the best coach in Raptors history. However, there comes a point where someone's mistakes outweigh their gains. It sounds like the frustrations that Ujiri was having with Casey eventually outgrew his gains. Despite a 59-win season, there were playoff failures. For every DeRozan highlight, there was a bad defensive possession. For every clutch victory, there was failing to double-team LeBron James at the end of Game 3. Eventually this all built up into why Ujiri decided to move on from him.
Right? It's like "NBA Coach of the Year, sponsored by Round Up weed killer, and presented by @Louka."
The Pistons landing Rasheed Wallace was a total game changer or in that particular case a team/franchise changer. His numbers with the Pistons may not reflect it cause he deferred to Billups/Rip for scoring and didn’t grab as many boards cause of Big Ben but when the Pistons acquired him he was still in his prime (29 years old) and IMO he had the skillset/tools/talent to be better than KG and Duncan who were the top guys during that era. His natural ability was elite. Like I said just my opinion though. Imagine us or the Raptors having landed a Kevin Love that still used his post game on a regular basis except he’s more athletic, durable, consistent and comes up big in the clutch after the all star break. For FREE basically (Pistons gave up a poo poo platter). That’s what the Pistons got.
Again, lets be real though. Nobody seriously thought Toronto would get to the Finals did they? When your two best players are Derozan and Lowry surrounded by a bunch of average to below average role players they are who most of us thought they were. They overachieved in the regular season and got bounced in the playoffs at or near expected. If Brad Stevens or Quin Snyder were coach they might have won 2 games *maybe*. I think Boston and or Philly would’ve beat them in the semi or ecf. They should’ve kept Casey and had a firesale to rebuild. They are going nowhere for the forseeable future with Philly and Boston around. But again, Lowry and Derozan as your 2 best players was fools Gold all along. Reminds me a little bit of our final year before blowing it up and rebuilding after the 2012 season. We were led by Lowry before he became a ‘star’ and Kevin Martin who was close in terms of scoring but a much less well rounded version of Demar surrounded by a bench with similar role players. Not nearly good enough. Thank god for Morey.
Raptors could be in trouble here. All things equal (and I know they aren't), Budenholzer might find the Bucks roster has more promise than the Raptors situation. It's a no-brainer IMO. @malakas , is the Bucks ownership situation still dysfunctional? This is a golden opportunity for the franchise to finally turn a corner.
There is no question that the Bucks roster is better because they have the only franchise player. The odd thing is that Budd is an absolute perfect fit for the Raptors.
In my opinion, he's just as good a fit for the Bucks and can make them a top 4 seed next year. If Giannis goes to another level, who knows what would happen. The Raptors need a shakeup that could make them worse in the short term.
I believe as of last week it still is unless malakas has something new to report. I think the Raps are a more stable situation and still no guarantee Giannis decides to stay in MIlwaukee when it's decision time.
