Dwane Casey met with the Pistons today to discuss the franchise’s vacant head coaching role, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Casey was fired by the Raptors earlier this month following another early postseason exit.
Casey’s dismissal was surprising, given he led the Raptors to a 59-23 record this year, establishing a new franchise record for wins in a season. The National Basketball Coaches Association announced shortly after Toronto’s playoff exit that Casey was its pick for Coach of the Year; he’s a strong candidate to also win the official award, which is voted on by media members.
Casey, who had coached the Raptors since 2011, was the winningest coach in team history, leading the club to a 373-307 (.549) regular season record. Toronto won at least 48 games in each season with Casey at the helm and made five consecutive postseasons. However, after being swept by the Cavaliers in the second round this season, the organization decided to move in a new direction. Casey had one year left on his contract with Toronto, worth $6MM.
Casey joins a diverse pool of candidates as the Pistons have searched for Stan Van Gundy‘s replacement. The team has reportedly either already interviewed or considered Spurs assistants Becky Hammon and Ime Udoka, Heat assistant Juwan Howard, and TNT broadcaster Kenny Smith.
Hire this man
Casey needs to be the hire in Detroit
I thought Detroit fans where more ambitious, he is a failed manager, I wouldn’t want him near my team. You need some fresh & ambitious young manager like Stackhouse/Howard to inspire the team forward & try to make the best of the Griffin/Drummond pairing, all the other players should be on the block to try to build something around your big guys, don’t think Casey is the man, at all.
Stackhouse and Howard? To inspire? This is the NBA not AAU get real cesc
We need a proven coach
Dugdog83 if you get inspired by Casey… man suit yourself, but anyone is more inspiring that failed coach, & by that I mean anyone, I rather would have kept SVG before Casey, but really I don’t much care for Detroit, just thought it would be nice some enthusiastic young hungry guy, but if you prefer an old washout guy, that is synonymous of failure big time be my guest my friend.
Casey is a hell of a coach who turned around the Raptors program, his star player DeRozan is just built for the regular season not the playoffs.