Apr 25, 2018; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey reacts in the second quarter during game five of the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs against the Washington Wizards at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
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If the season ended after one round of the playoffs, Toronto would have called their year an unmitigated success. The Raptors won 59 games, had a top-5 offense and a top-5 defense, and combined play from their star guards with masterful rotations and the creation of a bench unit that demolished opposing bench lineups all year.

Dwane Casey received a bulk of that credit, and he’s favored to win the NBA’s coach of the year award. Today, he received that honor from his peers:

So, a great year for Toronto and Casey! Surely they’ll be looking to build on this success. (checks notes) Oh, no, he’s actually going to get fired.

While nothing’s final, it’s actually probably going to happen! Stranger still, it almost kind of makes sense! The Raptors were swept out of the playoffs by Cleveland in the second round, the same Cleveland team that was outplayed by the Pacers across seven games in round 1. Toronto was also taken to six games by the Wizards in the first round. That means for the postseason, the 59-win Raptors went 4-6.

That’s bad! And when your roster is relatively inflexible, and when you have years and years of postseason disappointment (even if most of that was at the hands of LeBron, who beats just about everyone in the playoffs), it’s harder and harder to go into the next year expecting something different. The danger, though, is that there aren’t many names available out there who are definitely upgrades over Casey, and continuity does have some benefits.

But then again, 4-6. And they just rolled over against Cleveland, too. Of course, if Casey is fired, it’s going to lead to a fun spectacle at the NBA’s awards ceremony on June 25th, when Casey could be presented with the NBA’s coach of the year award after having lost his job over his team’s performance.

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.

View all posts by Jay Rigdon

1 thought on “Toronto’s Dwane Casey won a coach of the year award while rumors of his impending firing increase”

  1. Casey should be fired for wasting a great season and basically throwing in the towel as early as he did in Game 4 vs. the Cavaliers once DeRozan was ejected. He should have had his starters out there to try to mount one last comeback to get the series back to Toronto for Game 5. He owed the fans that.

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