It’s probably not mere coincidence that the Pistons wound up with three Canadians on their 2021-22 roster. When you’re the coach of the Toronto Raptors, you’re effectively coaching the Canadian national team. From British Columbia to the maritime provinces, everybody flies the Raptors flag proudly north of our common border.
Dwane Casey spent seven years coaching the Raptors, taking the franchise to heights it had never known, and in the process became embedded in the burgeoning Toronto grass-roots program that has elevated the hockey capital of the western hemisphere to one of North America’s richest producers of hoops talent.
Casey came to know well the Josephs, first family of Canadian basketball, and admired from afar Kelly Olynyk – whose father, Ken, was head coach at the University of Toronto for 13 years and later worked as a development coach for the Raptors before Casey’s arrival.
“I’ve had a man crush on Kelly since Toronto,” Casey said of the premier free agent signed by the Pistons this off-season. “He’s from Canada. We always tried to get him there when I was back in that other life.”
Olynyk and Cory Joseph have played together and been friends forever. So you can guess Joseph’s reaction when both free agents wound up coming to contract terms with the Pistons over the summer.
“Very, very pleased that Kelly landed here,” Joseph said Wednesday. “He’s been my great friend for a long, long time. We played together from like 7, 8, 9 growing up. His dad and my dad coached. His mom was a referee. My mom played back in the day. I used to go in his back yard and he had this amazing trampoline. I used to go bounce around with him as kids.”
Both have bounced around the NBA since their arrivals, Joseph in the 2011 draft after one season at Texas and Olynyk in the 2013 draft after three years at Gonzaga. The Pistons are Joseph’s fifth NBA stop, Olynyk’s fourth. They’re joined by countryman Trey Lyles, also signed as a free agent this summer. Lyles, 25, is five years younger than both Joseph and Olynyk and grew up in western Canada, but all three have spent summers together playing for the Canadian national team.
The Pistons essentially traded Mason Plumlee to create the cap space that allowed them to pursue Olynyk and he’ll slide into Plumlee’s role, effectively. The major difference will come in Olynyk’s far greater scoring versatility. He’s a career 37 percent 3-point shooter who’s taken 43 percent of his attempts from the arc. At Miami last season, almost two-thirds of Olynyk’s attempts came from three, but after being traded to Houston at the deadline, he put together the most productive stretch of his career while taking a little less than 40 percent of his shots from three.
“It was definitely the role. In Miami, that’s what they wanted me to do – space the floor, shoot the ball, be that stretch big and keep the floor open for those other guys,” Olynyk said. “What your role is, you’re going to try to excel at your role. When I went to Houston, things were shaken up over there. They had a lot of injuries. They needed me to do more stuff – handle the ball a little more, play inside, outside, play off the dribble, pick and rolls. I didn’t end up shooting as many threes.”
Casey isn’t sure where Olynyk’s 3-point rate will land, but he has an idea based on what he envisions for how Olynyk will operate.
“What we try to do is 60/40 – 60 percent roll, 40 percent pop,” Casey said, meaning in pick and rolls, Olynyk will go to the rim 60 percent of the time and dart to the perimeter the other 40 percent. “He is such a weapon. We try to have that ratio.”
Olynyk averaged 19.0 points and 8.4 rebounds in 31 minutes a game over his 27 games in Houston, sporting a sizzling true shooting percentage of 67.4. His role with the Pistons is to be determined, but probably will hew closer to what Houston asked of him than how Miami shaped his role on a roster with scorers Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic, Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro and a fixture at center in Bam Adebayo.
“I think it’s going to be a blend,” Olynyk said. “I don’t think it’s going to be extreme. Obviously, it’ll change and be more fluid as the season goes along, but you do whatever you see fits and works and can help a team win.”
Just as Casey advocated for the pursuit of Olynyk, the Toronto native was keen on the idea of playing for Casey.
“I’ve always respected him and his teams, going back to Toronto,” he said. “Going back is always special. Seeing him excel there and come here and continue to bring that with him, I’ve always respected him a lot and what he’s been able to do and accomplish. It’s special to be a part of it.”