Columnist image

TSN Raptors Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO - Each year around this time, as they learn the strengths and weaknesses of their players, Dwane Casey and his staff sit down and begin to formulate a rotation, to assign roles.

Coaches on every team in the NBA will have that same discussion behind closed doors towards the end of training camp, but Casey does it a little differently.

In the interest of full disclosure and to avoid confusion, Toronto's head coach puts that discussion in writing, meets with each player individually and hands them their printed out responsibilities for the upcoming season.

He calls them role cards, and the premise is simple. They aim to answer one fundamental question that professional athletes, like anyone in any other profession, need to know before getting to work.

"What's your job?," said Casey, who is going into his fifth season at the helm of the Raptors. "Your job is to defend, rebound. If you're a three-point shooter, shoot three-pointers. If you're a passer, you're a passer. If you're a screener, you're a screener."

The 58-year-old has been using role cards for over three decades, going back to his days coaching at the University of Kentucky, where he picked up the idea. He's carried it over to the NBA, implementing them at every stop, whether he was the lead man or an assistant.

He spares no expense, either. Three cards are printed up for each player - one to take home, one to post in their locker and, wisely, one for their agent. Yes, they are laminated.

"And if they need extra, we can print 'em pretty quick," Casey said. "Free of charge."

Naturally, this is more than a habit for the long-time coach; it's something he believes makes a big difference later in the season, something he feels strongly about.

"I think it's something that's very significant because everybody kind of gets their role mixed up or wants to be more or some guys maybe want to be less than what you need [them] to be," he said. "I think it's very important that guys understand what their three or four things are."

"And it could change. A guy could become a three-point shooter at some point. But I think it's very important that you put it in writing, where there's an understanding of their role. And it's to help this team win. [Their role] may be different somewhere else, but for our team it's those things that are important."

According to Casey, no one has ever been overly defiant or requested an edit upon receiving their card, though it's not unusual for players to disagree with the assigned role mid-season. Perhaps a player believes he should be a bigger part of the offence, have more plays called for him and handle the ball more often. Maybe they see themselves as a three-point shooter. But, if 'three-point shooter' was left off your card to begin with, there's a reason why. "The numbers don't usually lie," Casey said.

Sure, you can differ in opinion with the coach regarding your place on the team, but the idea is that no one can say they don't know their role.

"No, they can't," Toronto's head coach insisted. "[If] they do, check the card. [If] anybody ever tells you that, come see me and I'll show you their card. And that's kind of one reason for it. [If] guys [say] 'I don't know my role', they can't say that. [Not if] they play for the Raptors."

About halfway through their month-long training camp, Casey has already begun to craft this year's cards but doesn't plan to have them completed and issued to the players until just before the regular season. He and his assistants are still in the evaluation stage, getting familiar with some of the team's new faces. Nearly half of Toronto's roster (seven of 15 players) figures to be first-year Raptors.

One of them, Canadian point guard Cory Joseph, is coming off a four-year mentorship under legendary coach Gregg Popovich with the Spurs. They didn't use role cards in San Antonio and Joseph seemed to have mixed feelings on the idea. There are pros and cons, he maintained.

"I think it's definitely a balance," said the 24-year-old. "Obviously you don't want to limit guys, but at the same time guys [have] to know what their strengths are out there on the court so it's not like a [recreational] league. [Casey] hasn't been putting the thunder down on anybody yet but I think everybody is still trying to figure everybody else."

"I think a lot of people know their roles but I think it's just good to see it," said DeMar DeRozan, the seven-year vet, who is in his fifth training camp with Casey. "I think it just puts everybody in a comfortable position, understanding what everybody's job is when you go out there on the court. You can't have five guys who go out there thinking, score. It's got to be a mixture of things that bring us together to make us a good team."

Casey's future in Toronto, like many of his players, is directly tied to the team's success in 2015-16. The Raptors head coach is going into the final year of his contract but, to his credit, he remains even-keeled and appears to be approaching this season like the one before, and the one before that.

That's not to say he's become complacent. His goal has always been to evolve as a coach.

"You learn so much, I'm sure in all your professions too, through your mistakes," he said. "More from your mistakes than the success you have."

"I made mistakes [as a rookie head coach] in Minnesota, everybody does, but you learn from them, you grow from them. But that's the nature of our business, learning from your defeats and your mistakes and the bad of your job, more so than the good."

Last season was another learning experience for Casey, as the Raptors fell to the bottom of the league in most defensive categories en route to a quick and disappointing exit from the playoffs, one that could have conceivably cost him his job. This year, most his players - new and old - can expect to see something about defence on their role card.

"Everybody talks about the new defence [but] we're not running a lot of new stuff," Casey said. "Just a little bit, our pick-and-roll defence is different but everything else, all other principles are the same. That's why I chuckle when everybody says, 'all the new stuff' we're doing, even players. No, it's not different, it's the same defensive principles we had, but we're doing them, personnel is doing them and it makes a difference."