OAKLAND—The Golden State Warriors would seem to be this game-changing group of gifted NBA players, a small-ball whirlwind that forces teams to try to match them shot for shot, three-pointer for three-pointer, in a futile attempt to keep up.
But they really didn’t invent the genre. They’re just close to perfecting a style that Raptors coach Dwane Casey has seen for decades.
There may not have been a collection of talent like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green in the past, but the style? The style’s been around.
“We did that, too,” Casey said, recalling his time as an assistant to George Karl with the Seattle SuperSonics in the early 1990s.