Dwane Casey wins NBA coaches’ vote for Coach of the Year, might still get fired anyway

The Toronto Raptors’ Dwane Casey was named 2017-18 NBA Coach of the Year by his peers, The veteran sideline general pushed the Raptors to a franchise-record 59 wins and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, was honored by the National Basketball Coaches Association, according to a report from the New York Times’ Marc Stein.

And it still might not be enough to save his job.

Casey finds himself in coaching limbo after falling to the Cavaliers in an embarrassing Eastern Conference semifinal sweep. It was the third straight season LeBron James pushed Toronto out of the postseason, and the second where he did so without letting the Raptors win a single game.

That ignominious finish erased a lot of goodwill after what appeared to be a breakthrough season for Casey. After relying on the All-NBA backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan to rebuild the club following Chris Bosh’s departure, the seventh-year coach added a new dimension to Toronto behind a new, multi-faceted offense. He turned a young bench led by players like Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, and Delon Wright into one of the league’s most efficient units, creating a second-string that didn’t just sustain leads, but often extended them.

That was huge for a Raptors’ team whose salary cap situation prevented them from making any significant personnel additions. Casey was tasked with changing his team’s identity without being able to physically rebuild it, and he came through in a big way. He coached the East in the 2018 All-Star Game and led his team to the NBA’s second-best record.

His effort may have been wasted on Toronto’s front office, but Casey’s peers appreciated it. The NBCA polled all 30 of the league’s head coaches, with the Raptor coach coming out on top in the final tally. According to Stein, the other seven coaches to receive votes were Philadelphia’s Brett Brown, Houston’s Mike D’Antoni, Indiana’s Nate McMillan, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Utah’s Quin Snyder, Portland’s Terry Stotts, and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers.

There’s one big name missing from that list — Boston’s Brad Stevens. Stevens has his Celtics on the brink of the Eastern Conference finals despite rolling into the 2018 NBA Playoffs without stars Gordon Hayward or Kyrie Irving. While injuries have ravaged his team’s depth chart, Stevens’ hard work has turned young players like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Terry Rozier into stars while establishing Boston as both a win-now and a built-for-the-future team.

But while the rest of the names on that ballot will enjoy some solid job security this offseason, Casey will have to sweat it out as the winningest coach in Raptors’ history awaits his fate. The NBCA named him its Coach of the Year, and the NBA proper could be next. That may not be enough for Toronto, however — the Raptors’ biggest concern right now isn’t accolades, but finding a way to finally beat James and the Cavaliers.