Dwane Casey is recognized by his NBA coaching peers, but will he get to keep his job?

By vote of his peers, Dwane Casey did the best coaching job in the NBA this season.

Now, will the former Kentucky player and assistant coach get to keep that job?

The New York Times reported that the Toronto Raptors head coach will be named Coach of the Year by the NBA Coaches Association in a formal announcement on Wednesday.

Toronto finished with the best record in the NBA's Eastern Conference this season with a 59-23 regular-season record. The win total set a franchise record.

After beating Washington 4-2 in the opening round of the playoffs, the Raptors were swept by LeBron James in the conference semifinals. It was the second straight season that Cleveland has swept Toronto in the playoffs.

That has led to speculation that despite the regular season success, Casey could be facing a pink slip.

After the Raptors fell behind 3-0 to the Cavs, Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer wrote that executives around the league expected Casey to be fired.

"Casey, who’s been with Toronto since June 2011, is the fourth-longest-tenured head coach in the NBA, after Gregg Popovich, Erik Spoelstra, and Rick Carlisle. But after years of fans calling for Raptors president Masai Ujiri to fire Casey, the guillotine could actually drop this time, despite the fact Casey is a Coach of the Year candidate," O'Connor wrote. "Casey’s in-game adjustments, playcalling, and lineup choices have been lacking in the postseason.

"It was unforgivable that he kept C.J. Miles on Kevin Love for so long in Game 2. In Game 3, the Raptors continuously sent early double-teams at James and Love, which only worked to allow wide-open shooters for the Cavaliers. And while Casey deserves credit for renovating the Raptors’ system, moving the offense from the midrange to 3-point land in 2017 is like just now buying an HDTV. What took so long?"

After Toronto was crushed 128-93 by Cleveland in Game 4, Paul Pierce took Casey to task on ESPN's The Jump, awarding the coach two pieces of his eight-piece "Blame Pie."

"This is two years and there have been no adjustments," Pierce said. "You guys have gotten swept two years. You've got to adjust with your gameplan.

"How do you slow down LeBron? I know that's a tough task, but you can't tell me that you can't make an adjustment. Indiana made an adjustment. They pushed (Cleveland) to the brink. You guys are the No. 1 seed, I need to see adjustments out here. You need to trap LeBron. Let's see something different. It just seemed like it was repetitive the way they lost. (Casey) deserves a lot of the blame for that. Two years in a row, 0-8, come on."

And Josh Lewenberg of the Sporting News reported that the Raptors are leaning toward firing Casey.

"If he’s let go or, more likely, he and the team mutually agree to part ways, it won’t be an indictment of Casey or what he’s accomplished in his seven seasons at the helm of a franchise he’s helped turn around," Lewenberg wrote. "After being swept out of the playoffs for the third time in four years – twice as the higher seed – the sense is it’s time for a new direction and a different voice."

Dwane Casey's coaching record with Toronto

This story was originally published May 9, 2018 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Dwane Casey is recognized by his NBA coaching peers, but will he get to keep his job?."