It has finally happened.  The Toronto Raptors have advised the media to show up at the Air Canada Center today at 1:00 p.m. to meet the team’s new head coach.

Unless Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo has been using misdirection and stealth at unheard of levels, Dallas assistant Dwane Casey will be sitting at the podium beside him.

The 54-year old Casey was an assistant coach in college for a decade before joining Seattle as an assistant in 1994.  After 11 years with the Sonics, Casey got his chance to be a head coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the start of the 2005-06 season and coached the team to a 53-69 record over a season and a half.  Three more seasons as an assistant in Dallas complete the resume.  No one will be calling Casey a rookie coach.

As a head coach, Casey led a weak Wolves franchise to a 33-49 record in his first season, but his team held opponents to just 93.6 points per game which was eighth best in the NBA.  The next season Casey got the Wolves off to a surprising 20-20 start and in eighth place in the West before he was inexplicably fired.  The team slid 12-30 the rest of the way and missed the playoffs.

{AUTHOR_BOX}Casey is a very good defensive coach who can teach young players, and almost as soon as he was let go by the Sonics, Casey has been on the radar of teams looking for a new head coach.  It is surprising that it has taken this long for him to land his next head coaching job.

There should be no doubt that it was the Casey inspired defense in Dallas this season that got Colangelo’s attention and tipped the Raptors decision in his favor.

The last three head coaches in Toronto were Kevin O’Neill, Sam Mitchell, and Jay Triano, and they all had one thing in common, they were all rookies.  This time the Raptors have chosen a candidate with NBA head coaching experience, some measure of previous success, and a reputation for defense.  Expectations for Casey with a very young team will be tempered initially, but fans will be looking for a more competitive team almost immediately.

Send me your comments or questions about the Toronto Raptors, or anything else in the NBA to my weekly NBA chat and check back on Thursday at noon ET for a response.