Raptors' Lowry on Dwane Casey's future: 'It's not my decision'

Toronto Raptors star point guard Kyle Lowry didn't exactly back head coach Dwane Casey after a humiliating series sweep against the Washington Wizards.

Speaking at the Raptors' locker cleanouts on Monday, Lowry was asked about the future of Casey with the Raptors, to which he coldly sidestepped the question.

In turn, Casey took a few subtle jabs of his own against Lowry.

At least Casey softened the blow by comparing the on-off relationship with Lowry to the give-and-take dynamics of a family.

Despite leading the Raptors to a franchise-record 49 wins, Casey has come under fire for his team's lackluster performance to end the year. The turnaround between 2014 and 2015 has spoken volumes about the Raptors' inability to adapt after a strong 85-game stretch across two seasons in 2014.

Most notably, Casey's team's most glaring shortcomings – their unimaginative offense and utterly inept defense – were put on full display during the playoffs.

Casey's offense revolved around a perimeter-centric system that featured pick-and-roll and isolation sets for their high-usage guards. The only three Raptors to finish with a usage rate above 20 percent were Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Lou Williams, who all posted average-to-subpar efficiency numbers. Meanwhile, their underused bigs were far more efficient, with Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson finishing in the top-five in terms of field-goal percentage.

More damming, however, was the Raptors' defunct 25th-ranked defense. Casey carried a reputation for being a defensive mastermind, but his hyper-aggressive defense was ill-suited for his personnel. And despite glaringly obvious signs of dysfunction, Casey and his staff was resistant to change, which ultimately resulted in a thrashing on behalf of the Wizards in the playoffs.

That being said, Lowry is not exactly blameless in all of this. Lowry has a history of clashing with coaches and severely under-performed in the second half of the regular season and in the postseason. He also epitomized some of the Raptors' biggest problems. Lowry often wasted possessions on pull-up jump shots early in the shot clock and his on-ball defense amounted to little more than half-witted gambles before conceding dribble penetration with ease.

The gambit for the Raptors with Casey is two-fold. First, Casey is just one year into a three-year extension. Second, much of the team's ethos has been built upon chemistry and continuity.

However, there is a strong case to be made that a change in leadership is needed. Given that Lowry is the Raptors' best player, he would likely hold more permanency with the franchise than a middling coach like Casey.

For what it's worth, at least Lowry's backcourt partner DeRozan backed Casey.