In even more “Holy Christ, we need a coach!” news, the Houston Rockets are unsurprisingly (and thankfully) taking a run at Dallas Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey. Via Marc Stein:
Sources said that Casey is one of the more serious candidates on a long list of potential Houston targets to replace Rick Adelman, which stems partly from the Rockets’ high regard for Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle. Casey came to Dallas with Carlisle to run the Mavs’ defense starting with the 2008-09 season after posting a record of 53-69 in 1½ seasons as head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The 54-year-old Casey has been waiting for second shot at a top job since being dismissed by Minnesota with a record of 20-20 during the 2006-07 season. He narrowly missed out on coaching jobs last summer with the Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Clippers and ranks as one of the league’s most highly rated assistants.
Casey appears to be the tough-minded, over-prepared captain that every team with a roster of discombobulated parts could use to man their suddenly adrift ship (ANALOGY). Because of this, apparently every team that desperately could have used one of those (Clippers, Hawks, post-conference-finals Timberwolves) has passed up on Casey; it would only make sense that the wunderkind Daryl Morey would be the first NBA GM to know exactly how great of a choice Casey would make.