The Toronto Raptors have hired 54-year old Dwane Casey as their next head coach. Casey spent his last three years as an assistant coach with the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks. He was last a head coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves during the 2006-07 season and his team was 20-20 when he was fired. Casey has a 53-69 record (43.4%) during his two years as a head coach. Casey has been talking about making the Raptors a defensive team and that will be interesting to watch with the crew he has on the roster right now.

The Raptors have six free agents heading into this summer. It will be interesting to see how many of them the Raptors bring back as they will likely want to continue rebuilding the franchise. SG/SF Leandro Barbosa has a player option for the 2011-12 season and I think he will no doubt pick it up and return to the Raptors for the 2011-12 season. SG/SF Sonny Weems, C Alexis Ajinca and SF/PF Joey Dorsey will all likely come back cheaply to the Raptors if they want them back. PF Reggie Evans will likely get a decent contract somewhere else plus the Raptors need to give his minutes to Amir Johnson and Ed Davis. Forward Julian Wright will likely be allowed to walk away.

The Raptors have sent 22-year old center Solomon Alabi back to the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA’s D-League. Alabi has played in 10 games (0 starts) for the Raptors so far this year and he is averaging 4.0 minutes, 0.4 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. The Raptors figure that Alabi isn’t going to get any better sitting on the bench in Toronto. He has played in 11 games (11 starts) for the Bayhawks already this season and he is averaging 22.1 minutes, 8.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 2.6 blocked shots per game.

The Raptors have acquired 24-year old small forward James Johnson from the Bulls for the Miami Heat’s first round pick in 2011. Johnson played in 13 games (0 starts) for the Bulls this season and he was averaging 9.5 minutes, 3.2 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. He has now played in 78 games (11 starts) in his first two years in the NBA and he is averaging 11.3 minutes, 3.8 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. The pick the Raptors traded to the Bulls came from the Heat in the Chris Bosh deal. It was going to be a very late pick so the Raptors decided to take a flier on Johnson instead of waiting until June to make that selection.

The Raptors have lost 26-year old small forward Linas Kleiza for the remainder of the season as he underwent microfracture surgery yesterday. Kleiza played in 39 games (23 starts) for the Raptors this year and he averaged 26.5 minutes, 11.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. The Raptors are going to turn to 24-year old Sonny Weems at small forward the rest of the way. He has played in 31 games (21 starts) for the Raptors so far this year and he is averaging 27.0 minutes, 10.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. The Raptors think that Weems will at least do a good job offensively.