Raptors hire Mavs' Casey to take charge
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China Daily, June 23, 2011
Dwane Casey hopes to bring a rugged, NHL-style of defense to his newest job in the NBA.
The Toronto Raptors hired Casey as their coach on Tuesday, nine days after the Dallas assistant helped the Mavericks win the championship.
Casey succeeds Jay Triano, a Canadian who became a consultant after the Raptors finished 22-60. Casey was the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves from June 2005 to January 2007, compiling a 43-59 record.
Casey said his No 1 goal is to give the Raptors a "defensive identity", He partially credited the Mavericks' performance against LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the NBA finals to the breaking down of hockey video.
"Because we felt we were playing too soft against Miami to start the series," he said. "And it really set the tone."
"I don't know a lot about hockey. I know I'll learn about it. But we spliced in those guys checking players up into the window, into the boards and that type of thing and that's the way we want to play," he said. "We want to make sure people feel us when they cut through the lane. And that's a mindset, and that's having a disposition - a bad disposition - when people come through your paint."
Poor on defense, Toronto missed the playoffs for the third straight season. The Raptors have made it past the first round only once in their 16-year existence, doing it in 2000-01.
The Raptors want to start their improvement on Thursday with the fifth pick in the NBA draft.
Casey won't have much input on who the Raptors pick.
"I've learned over the years to step back from the draft because you have to hire trusted people with your scouting department and trust their knowledge," Casey said. "You can give them your input into what you need and what you want, but the bottom line has to come from the scouting department."
The 54-year-old Casey, who also was an assistant for 11 seasons in Seattle, is the eighth coach in Raptors' history. Triano stood quietly at the back of the conference announcing Casey's hire. Casey said he intends to use Triano as a "resource" and build on what he sees as a core of young talent that includes guards DeMar DeRozan and Jerryd Bayless, center Andrea Bargnani and forward Amir Johnson.
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