Young players can benefit from Dwane Casey for Detroit Pistons

Dwane Casey has a track record of being able to develop younger players into solid building blocks for a team. Can he do the same thing with the Detroit Pistons?

Dwane Casey lost his job as the head coach of the Toronto Raptors after the team had their best season as an NBA franchise.

A lot of things played into Casey losing his job. One of them can be described as not meeting certain expectations. The Raptors have been demoralized by the Cleveland Cavaliers in each of their last three postseason appearances.

Toronto felt as though they could do better going in a different direction without Casey involved. Despite the fallout between the two parties, Casey did a lot of positive things in Toronto.

One of the biggest was his ability to develop young talent that Toronto acquired.

Let’s take a look at some of the guys that excelled under Casey’s supervision with the Raptors.

Kyle Lowry

Lowry was not an all-star caliber player before he joined the Toronto Raptors. He became the floor general and a work horse for Dwane Casey’s team.

He was elected to four consecutive all-star teams. In 2016, he set a career high in points per game (22.1) and three-point percentage (41.6). He also had a career-high 22.9 player efficiency rating that same season.

Before playing under Casey in Toronto, Lowry was still trying to find an identity in the NBA. He played for a couple different teams where he never really excelled in the role he was placed in.

Lowry wasn’t exactly an inexperienced player before coming to Toronto. However, it was clear that he went above and beyond with Dwane Casey as his head coach.

Fred VanVleet

Fred VanVleet was an undrafted free agent out of Wichita State that managed to make Toronto’s roster from the summer league. He didn’t do much of anything in his first season with the Raptors.

It’s hard to do much when he only averaged eight minutes a night in his first season. His second season in Toronto is where the real development is obvious.

After playing within his role his first season, VanVleet was given a bigger opportunity in 2017. He took full advantage of it. He averaged eight points, three assists and two rebounds in just over 20 minutes a night.

This might not seem like it’s that big of an accomplishment from a coaching standpoint.

The fact is Casey was able to take a smaller point guard that was passed up on by a lot of teams and turn him into an effective back-up point guard for the Toronto Raptors.

As Lowry gets older, VanVleet will likely be next in line to take the starting point guard spot on that team as he continues to develop.

Detroit Pistons players that can benefit from Casey

The first name that immediately comes to mind is Stanley Johnson. He was drafted by the Pistons in 2015 and still hasn’t been able to find himself in the NBA.

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Johnson has shown flashes of being a starter in this league. This past season, he began using his strength and going to the basket more and more. This helped his game as he backed away from the three-point jumper that he still hasn’t been able to figure out.

Look, Johnson was drafted in the top ten of his draft class for a reason. Hopefully Casey can find some of those reasons and put his developmental skills to use .

Henry Ellenson is another guy that comes to mind from the Detroit Pistons roster. He’s a player that still hasn’t received a fair crack at playing time yet in the NBA.

Some said that Ellenson should have been a lottery pick in the 2016 draft when he ended up falling to Detroit at the 18th spot. He’s a stretch four in a league that values his playing style.

Casey will likely try to find a way to mix him into the rotation more next season.

Luke Kennard is a guy that also comes to mind when talking about development of young talent. He had an alright rookie season despite catching a lot of backlash from the fan base.

That was because he wasn’t living up to the ‘Donovan Mitchell‘ standards. The fact is no one knew Mitchell possessed that set of skills and its unfair to hold Kennard to that kind of expectation.This is another guy that Casey will likely try to mold and shape into more of a complete player next season.

Reason for optimism?

Dwane Casey has a track record of developing young talent in the NBA. Above are some of those examples. There are more guys than just Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet that have turned into solid players under Casey.

DeMar DeRozan wasn’t one of the best guards in the league when Casey became Toronto’s head coach. Delon Wright is also a good example of developmental skills as a head coach.

These are all reasons to be excited about Dwane Casey and all the opportunities with the younger players on the Detroit Pistons roster.