Dwane Casey fired by Raptors after 59-win season

The Raptors have fired head coach Dwane Casey after seven seasons with the franchise. The move, which was announced Friday by GM Masai Ujiri, puts one of the most successful coaches in the NBA on the open market after leading his team to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference this season.

Casey, 61, coached the Raptors through their best stretch in franchise history. The team posted 50 wins in each of the past three seasons, including a conference-best 59-23 record this season, and became one of the prime challengers to LeBron James’ Cavaliers.

However, the Raptors’ inability to get past James in the postseason proved to be Casey’s undoing. Those 50-win teams were knocked out by Cleveland each of the past three years. Despite their impressive showing during the 2017-18 regular season, the Raptors were totally overmatched by the Cavs in a second-round sweep.

So while Casey is easily the most successful coach in Raptors history, he’s out after seven years. He finishes his time in Toronto with a 558-320 record during the regular season, but a not-so-hot 21-30 record in the playoffs.