Dwane Casey

James either scored or assisted on 60% of the Cavaliers' points, averaging 34.4 points, 10 rebounds, and 7.7 assists, and hitting over 55% of his shots.

In the next round, the Cavs faced the best team in the East, the Toronto Raptors, who had two all-stars, a deep bench, and coach of the year, Dwane Casey.

And game one started to look like a blowout, as Toronto led by 14 after the first quarter.

But little by little, the lead started to melt.

In 22 games, he notched 15 double-doubles and four triple-doubles.

Even though his defense was better in 2013, during the 2018 playoffs, Bron played the most intelligent basketball of his career.

His development as a player was echoed by the Warriors' coach, Steve Kerr, who paid the biggest compliment to LeBron during the finals.

Maybe the greatest testament to LeBron is that, you know, five years ago, he was one of the top five players of all time.

for me to y'all y'all will have everything i have y'all will get everything i can give and to the city i want the city to know that i truly do believe in what we're building i truly do believe in the players and the organization and the coaches that we have and i want y'all to believe in me and and and my work ethic and my ability to want to grow as a man and a player so

durin says he does want to be a detroit piston for life and you know he just signed a five-year deal i mean that is a big commitment by the detroit pistons to do that and i i think it's definitely a little bit different than i'm happy to be here type of response by him um i i think at the end of the day we've heard how much he loves kate cunningham how much uh He has respect and admiration for Dwayne Casey, even gave Troy Weaver a shout out at the top of his podcast for taking a chance on him and trading up to draft him.

said a lot of good things about people in the higher ups, like Pistons executive George David, that's really high up in the front office.

Jalen Duren, at the end of the day, I think always wanted to be here.

And even before JB got here, you know, under, under Monty Williams.

And then when he was a rookie under Dwayne Casey, like his condition was always in question.

And I remember playing that video a couple of days ago when he's walking with Natalie, Natalie Kerwin in the, Practice Performance Center, and they're talking about how he went from eating a lot of candy, a lot of sugar, to consuming more grapes, consuming close to a pound of grapes a day because he really likes sweets, he really likes sugar, and the team dietician wanted him to eat something a little healthier.

And he even admitted that his diet hasn't always been the best.

Talking to all the guys and hearing all the comments today, everyone believes they have that.

I'm very curious how Dwayne Casey would feel about the amount of pound the rock we're going to hear this year because that was a Dwayne Casey-ism, but it's also a Spurs thing.

And there are so many Spurs on this team now where Kawhi Leonard is back.

Jakob Pertl played for the Spurs for a little bit.

Like-

... they're gonna be like, "Yo, man, remember, remember when, like, Doug reported that Dwayne Casey was getting fired?" You know what I mean?

Yeah.

But then, like, people, like, people don't remember that, but people remember, like, Doug's, like, problematic tweets from, like, 2014.

Right

... felt like, dog, what do you got? 'Cause, like, he just came off his rookie year and he averaged, like, eight points a game.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, I was like, "Oh man, DeMar's gonna take over the franchise." Like, I don't think that, like, that was a reasonable expectation at the time, but the way that he worked through it, and then the fact that him, Dwayne Casey, Kyle, the three of those guys started building an organization up from, you know, that Rudy Gay trade onward, and brought the Raptors five years of, like, really good regular season success, and even a couple playoff wins.

I mean, remember the Raptors didn't even win a seven-game playoff series until 2016 when they finally did it [laughs] against Indiana in a game seven.

He was, like, his, I think, development got stumped by Monte Williams in that 24 season.

Who was their coach in 23? It was Dwayne Casey still? Yeah, it was Dwayne Casey.

monty williams is playing killing haze over him and then he breaks out like the pistons are finally good again 30 games he's shooting 40 from three he's averaging 17 and a half points four rebounds four assists he's probably gonna get like 100 million dollars in the 25 off season and then gets injured against the magic not the same player and then also just not the same player mentally and there was just so much that went on i thought this was a nice swing for chicago i think i made a video on this channel saying i love jayden ivy to the bulls I said four games, four games.

And I have no idea if he's going to play in the NBA again.

Right.

And even, you know, all these guys that they went through, I mean, I always claim like they should have just kept on like Dwayne Casey longer, but that's going way back when, but like, you know, you really can't think through who those guys were.

And even with flip Saunders, maybe people at the time maybe would remember a little better, but I kind of remember those teams.

And I was like, dude, that always felt like a flip centric thing.

... or Josh, uh, not Josh.

Uh, some of the other, uh, Dwayne Casey once had to take-

Dwayne Casey, yes

...

the subway 'cause, like, traffic was so crazy, but it's just not something you commonly hear, and I love that.

Uh, yeah, JB Bickerstaff was extended for a reason.

My, my only hope is that JB Bickerstaff doesn't end a tenure like Dwayne Casey, 'cause I, I loved Dwayne Casey as a coach and it was a shame how that all kinda ended and, and went down there.

Um, and I, I hope for better when eventually, you know, all things do come to an end.

Uh, so I hope his exit's at least better than, than that.