Shortly after being named the NBA's Coach of the Year for the 2017-18 season, Dwane Casey was fired by the Raptors. A year later, Toronto is in the NBA Finals.
It must be a bit of a gut-punch for Casey, now the head coach of the Pistons. After building the Raptors into an Eastern Conference juggernaut during seven years at the helm, he has to watch them take the next step under first-year head coach Nick Nurse -- a coach Casey helped groom.
If it's any consolation, Raptors president Masai Ujiri hasn't forgotten the contributions of the man he decided to fire.
At his pre-finals press conference on Wednesday, Ujiri was asked about the job Nurse has done in his first year in charge -- and he immediately shifted the attention to the coach Nurse replaced.
"Give Dwane Casey credit. He prepared us for this, too," Ujiri said. "This is not something that started in one year. I don't know that a team can just start in one year. So I want to say that Dwane Casey and DeMar DeRozan are a part of this. They are a part of our journey and how far this has come.
"I think Nick has done a great job just taking it from there and building his own identity and building a team that he wanted to coach in a certain way and bringing us to this moment."
The trade of DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard, of course, was the other major move the Raptors made last offseason.
Casey, who brought the Pistons back to the playoffs in his first year in Detroit, took over in Toronto in 2011-12 following the team's last-place finish. The Raptors won their division two years later and four of the next five years. They were knocked out of the playoffs by LeBron James and the Cavs in each of Casey's final three seasons, including in the conference finals in 2016.
It's not a coincidence that they won the East in James' first year in the West.
If it's any further consolation for Casey (it probably isn't), the Pistons went 3-0 against the Raptors this season.
