LOS ANGELES—On the day in 2011 when Dwane Casey was announced as the eighth coach of the Toronto Raptors, the new gig didn’t exactly appear be a recipe for obvious longevity.
There was dubious franchise history to consider. The previous 16 seasons had seen the club rifle through seven different head coaches, each man getting the helm, on average, for a little more than two years. And there was also a notoriously restless executive at work. Bryan Colangelo, the general manager who hired Casey, had spent a managerial career in Toronto and Phoenix sifting through nine different coaches in 16 years, giving his typical coach a little less than two years.