The ex-Cat with the most notable NBA success story of 2017-18 isn’t a one-and-done star

While leading the New Orleans Pelicans to the NBA playoffs, Anthony Davis has played at a level worthy of MVP consideration.

In his age 22 season, Karl-Anthony Towns made his first NBA All-Star Game and helped the Minnesota Timberwolves to their first playoff appearance in 14 seasons.

Though toiling on a horrid Phoenix Suns team, Devin Booker’s ascending star has reached such luminance that he was named to the pool of candidates to make the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team.

Yet, for my money, the most notable NBA success by a former Kentucky basketball player in 2017-18 did not come from the small army of John Calipari-era, one-and-done stars now in the league.

It was produced by an ex-Cat who played for Joe B. Hall.

Though Dwane Casey had long since attained the mantle of most-successful coach in Toronto Raptors history, it was not apparent that the ex-UK guard (1975-79) from Union County had a secure hold on his coaching job when this season began.

Last year, after Toronto was swept by Cleveland in the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs semifinals, Raptors President Masai Ujiri told the media that the franchise needed a “culture reset.”

In 2015-16, Toronto had won 56 regular-season games and reached the Eastern Confernce finals. So last year’s 51 victories and Eastern Conference semifinals trip represented a step back. At the time, some wondered if Casey’s defensive-oriented approach had taken Toronto as far as it was going to.

That makes what Casey has accomplished in Toronto this season so impressive.

When the 2018 NBA playoffs tip off this weekend, Toronto will be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Raptors will face No. 8 seed Washington on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in the first game of a best-of-seven series.

Only the Houston Rockets (65 victories) won more games this season than Toronto’s franchise-record 59 wins.

While the “culture reset” led to major changes in how Toronto did things off the court, the Raptors’ breakout season also coincided with a dramatic alteration in Toronto’s offensive philosophy.

Casey moved from an isolation-heavy offense to an attack that emphasized ball movement and greater use of the three-point shot.

All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry was asked to occupy the ball less. All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan was asked to shoot more three-point shots.

In part to relieve the season-long wear and tear on Lowry and DeRozan, Toronto emphasized using its bench players more.

The results of the changes have been transformative.

A season ago, Toronto took an average of 24.3 three-point shots a game and made 8.8 a contest. This year, Toronto launched 33 treys a game and made almost 12 (11.8) per contest.

Last year, Toronto scored 103.8 points a game and was last in the NBA in assists. This year, the Raptors put up an average of 111.7 points and are sixth in assists.

Meanwhile, the Raptors “bench mob,” led by former Wichita State star point guard Fred VanVleet, has been the most effective second unit in the NBA.

The ultimate test of the changes Casey and Toronto have implemented will be how they fare in the playoffs. What the Raptors still do not have is the one quality the past seven NBA Eastern Conference champions have all shared.

That is LeBron James on their roster.

Should seeds hold and Toronto vanquishes Washington and John Wall and No. 4 Cleveland gets past No. 5 Indiana, Casey’s Raptors will face King James and the Cavs — the team that has eliminated Toronto from the playoffs the past two seasons — in the conference semifinals.

If Toronto is ever going to make an NBA Finals with the Lowry/Derozan nucleus, this probably needs to be the year.

Even with James, Cleveland seems more vulnerable than in any season since the King’s return from Miami. The two teams that appear to be the up-and-comers in the Eastern Conference — injury-ravaged Boston and Philadelphia — are probably not yet ready to make a finals run.

Still, whatever happens in the playoffs, Casey’s work with Toronto during the regular season merits recognition.

In a season with an unusually bountiful number of deserving NBA Coach of the Year candidates, Casey, who turns 61 Tuesday, should stand at the front of that pack.

“Dwane should be at the top of anybody’s list,” Boston Celtics Coach Brad Stevens — another viable Coach of the Year possibility — recently told reporters. “... What he’s done is special.”

This story was originally published April 12, 2018 at 5:35 PM with the headline "The ex-Cat with the most notable NBA success story of 2017-18 isn’t a one-and-done star."