Report: Dwane Casey to win 2018 NBCA Coach of the Year award

Call it solidarity or respect, even in the face of rumours of his firing, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey is still appreciated by the coaching ranks across the NBA.

As reported by the New York Times’ Marc Stein (Steiny-Moe, no mo’), Casey is to be named the winner of the Michael H. Goldberg Coach of the Year award by the National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA). The award, as you may have guessed, is voted on by the rest of the league’s coaches. Consider it as something akin to a more credible Golden Globe award, compared to the NBA’s similar trophy, which is voted on by the media (and receives much more fanfare).

At this point, I don’t think I need to rehash Casey’s achievements with the Raptors this year: culture reset, integrating young players, 59 wins, top five in offense and defense, etc. etc. etc. He’s a good coach (even if he can’t beat LeBron James himself).

According to the NYT’s reports, Casey was in a group of eight coaches who also received votes, including Brett Brown, Mike D’Antoni, Nate McMillan, Gregg Popovich, Quin Snyder, Terry Stotts, and Doc Rivers. (The absence of the boy wonder, Brad Stevens, is an odd omission.)

In case you were curious — and, like me, didn’t realize this was an actual award — the NBCA gave out its first ever Coach of the Year award to co-winners: D’Antoni and Erik Spoelstra.

Now we just have to see if any of this will help Casey keep his job in Toronto.

UPDATE:

It’s official!