I have a hot take.

Thank you, Dwane Casey.

The way the team plays right now seems night and day with last season. But you don’t see this much growth overnight if the fundamentals were not set in place.

That Casey defense forcing them to switch all the time? They are not implementing that right now but our guys have become switchable.

Bagley has been known to be terribad at defense. But he is passable now, something which started to be corrected since transferring to Detroit.

The boys also seem to be coachable and are reportedly hardworking. And they have this college team camaraderie, having each other’s back.

I also remember when Stew had his Lebron incident. Casey asked him what he wants to be known for. Stew never got into trouble afterwards. Nobody in this team is actually getting into trouble.

And he never threw his players under the bus.

So I am grateful for Monty Williams because we can obviously see the effects of his coaching on how our team plays now. But I think much of the character this team developed was also because of Casey who coached them in, frankly, a lose-lose situation for his reputation. It is hard to be a coach in a purposeful tanking situation while still teaching good habits to the young guys and Casey did that with grace even if it did not manifest during his tenure. He committed career suicide when he agreed to stay on despite being put in a situation he did not sign up for.