Rajakovic’s stability, optimism rewarded by Raptors

This story is about Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković and his near-term future, but first, a reminiscence.

There was a time, not all that long ago, when Nick Nurse seemed like he could be the head coach in Toronto for as long as he wanted the job.

He had an NBA title on his resume from the Raptors’ epic 2018-19 run, he led the team to a franchise-best winning percentage the year following despite the departure of Kawhi Leonard — earning well-deserved coach-of-the-year recognition in the process — and after the 2020-21 ‘Tampa Tank’ Nurse helped spark the Raptors to a 48-win season and their seventh playoff appearance in eight years.

He had cameos on CBC shows your grandparents might watch, rocked out with The Arkells, and modelled baseball hats with his initials on them to help raise funds for his charitable foundation.

But the NBA is a capricious, ever-evolving beast, and things change fast. By the end of his fifth season Nurse seemed determined to seek greener pastures: “I’m going to take a few weeks to see where I’m at, you know?” Nurse said, exactly two years ago before he led the Raptors against the Sixers late in the 2022-23 season. “…Where my head’s at. And just see how the relationship with the organization is and everything.”

By the time the split became official a few weeks later, all sides could agree on at least one thing: they were each happy about it.

Nurse quickly latched to a new job with the Philadelphia 76ers, where it looked like he could routinely compete for championships.

Things haven’t worked out as planned. The Sixers were one-and-done in the playoffs last year, and rather than leading a parade down Broad Street, Nurse and the 76ers are tanking as hard as the Raptors ever did, hoping to salvage a top-six protected draft pick (Philadelphia owes its pick to Oklahoma City if it ends up being seventh or beyond) out of a disastrous season obliterated by injury.

The Raptors, led by Rajaković, Nurse’s successor in Toronto, have certainly done their part to add to the Sixers’ misery or help their draft position: with their 127-109 win in Philadelphia Sunday night, Toronto improved to 4-0 this season against Nurse’s club. Toronto was led by RJ Barrett, who finished with 31 points, five rebounds and five assists. Rookies Ja’Kobe Walter (17 points, eight rebounds) and Jamison Battle (16 points and seven rebounds) also impressed.

The Raptors won their fourth straight, improving to 28-47 before travelling to Chicago Tuesday to take on the Bulls. Toronto has the seventh-best lottery odds with a three-and-a-half game cushion on the San Antonio Spurs, who have the eighth-best odds. The Sixers (23-52) would have the fifth-best odds if the season were over today.

But even as the Raptors are set to miss the playoffs for the second straight year under Rajaković, there is a sense of stability, optimism and even buoyancy around the team. 

A big reason is Rajaković himself, as the espresso aficionado has somehow been able to get his roster to buy in on individual improvement and team-wide effort and execution, even while fulfilling the organizational mandate to use this season as an opportunity to nab as high a draft pick as feasible.

It’s what the Raptors were hoping for when they hired the highly regarded veteran coach from Serbia who had previously worked as an assistant in Oklahoma City, Phoenix and Memphis. There was a question about his lack of head coaching experience in North America, save for 100 games with Oklahoma City’s G League team a decade before, but over time doubts have fallen away, one by one.

It’s why, Sportsnet has learned, the Raptors quietly reached out to Rajaković during the off-season and picked up the fourth-year team option on the ‘three-and-one’ contract he signed with Toronto in the summer of 2023.

The decision went under the radar in part because it’s rare a team exercises their option on a contract two seasons ahead of time, and even less so when a first-year coach is coming off a 25-57 season. But it spoke to the organization wanting to be a good faith partner heading into a rebuilding season and also the belief that Rajaković had shown he was the right person to help them pivot towards being competitive again sooner than later.

“The players respect him. He works well with the front office, the team has gotten better,” said one source. “He’s a serious guy. He’s building a program here. Darko’s a dude.”

Or, more simply, as Raptors’ cornerstone Scottie Barnes put it when I asked him about Rajaković earlier this season: “Man, Darko, the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).”

It speaks to the magic trick Rajaković has somehow been able to conjure up: demanding accountability and effort, without the promise of winning.

“He’s managed to walk an incredibly fine line,” said one source close to Rajaković. “It’s easy for things to go the other way in a situation like this. When you’re coaching a team like the Celtics there is one set of expectations and when it’s the Wizards there’s another, but at least everyone knows what they are. To get players — young guys and veterans alike — to buy in on what the Raptors are trying to do is remarkable.”

Now, it’s a little early to anoint Rajaković as coach for life: The man hasn’t called a timeout in a playoff game yet. But the 46-year-old is in with both feet if he gets the chance.

“My personal opinion is that in order to have sustained success, not just success, sustained success, you need to have continuity in the work,” Rajaković said when we spoke recently. “And I think that’s important from a front office, from the roster, from the coaching staff you have — I think all of those ingredients are very important in building a team that’s going to be sustained for a long time and to have a lot of success.

“So definitely, if you asked me today, tomorrow I’m going to sign a 10-year contract extension. I love the city. I love the people. We have the best fans in the world. I’m absolutely thrilled for the opportunity to build something very special here.”

But even having the final year of his contract picked up was a welcome signal that Rajaković and the front office were in alignment, and it’s made what could have been a difficult season — the Raptors lost 16 of 17 games at one point — a shared exercise in bigger-picture thinking.

It’s not always the way for coaches when the losses mount early in their careers. Rajaković is the second Serbian (and European) head coach in NBA history. The first was Igor Kokoskov, a good friend and mentor for Rajaković. Kokoskov has 24 years’ experience as an NBA assistant coach, but he went 19-63 in his first season as a head coach with Phoenix in 2018-19, got let go and hasn’t gotten a head coaching opportunity since.

Rajaković has passed through that gauntlet that coaches often have to deal with early in their careers and will get two years to coach a team that is expected to compete for a post-season spot a year from now.

“We are here in this together,” Rajaković told me. “We know that this is a process. Obviously, I have utmost respect and trust in our front office and what we’re trying to build over here. And I think we are good partners. We’re trying to help each other in every possible way.

“I’m a soldier for the team. I’m going to do everything that is in the best interests of the organization, and it’s good knowing that you have trust from the front office as well.”

Rajaković has built his trust in the Raptors’ locker room along the way. It’s often said that the key to coaching successfully in the NBA is building strong bonds with star players. Publicly, Rajaković has been one of Scottie Barnes’ strongest advocates, but behind closed doors, Rajaković has pushed Barnes hard, demanding more of him as a leader and defender.

For his part, Barnes appreciates it.

“He instills confidence in me each and every day, constantly having talks with me, being able to communicate with me (and) Darko challenges me all the time, challenges me to get better, I give him so much credit,” Barnes told me. “He challenges me all the time to get better. To take more threes, be more aggressive, get to the rim more. He always challenges me, every single day in practice, to just keep working on something new and keep building on it… he challenges me, pushes me, motivates me. Great at communicating. He’s big for our team, and huge for me and my development.”

It’s a similar theme elsewhere in the locker room. Last March, Rajaković made the effort to attend the funeral for Immanuel Quickley’s uncle. Over the summer, the Raptors point guard spent copious amounts of time with his still-new head coach, attending the Olympics together in Paris and sharing multiple dinners during the team’s informal training camp in Spain, building bonds to sustain the ups and downs of an 82-game season.

“That’s probably one of the coolest things, like I’ve ever done with a coach, it was just me and him,” Quickley said, referring to the time he and Rajaković spent in Paris together. “Like, coach Thibs [Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau], I don’t think we spoke any words between us outside of basketball, outside of that facility, Darko cares about more than just basketball, he cares about the individual and for the team, he’s very straightforward and he understands his players. He just cares.”

But the job also requires being able to help teams win games, and given the parameters (play youngsters, play hard, play well but no need to chase a play-in spot), Rajaković has shown his process can yield results.

After finishing last season on a 2-19 skid and starting this one 8-31, Toronto is now 20-16 since Jan. 12. And while playing the NBA’s easiest schedule has clearly helped — of their last 20 wins, 11 have come against the six teams below them in the standings and six more have come against teams that are below .500 — the Raptors have been quiet tanking too by routinely resting their starters and limiting their minutes in other cases.

For the season, they rank third in the amount of minutes played by rookies, and the only first-rounder among that crop is Walter, the 19th overall pick who has missed 27 games due to injury. And — all caveats aside — the Raptors are tied for second in defensive rating over nearly a half-season’s worth of games, which seems preposterous given Toronto was 28th in defensive rating through their first 39 games.

“And the habits he’s been able to build in this team over the summer and throughout this season, it’s been amazing,” Raptors veteran Garrett Temple told me. “You talk about player development… defensively, we’ve worked on so many things, nuances I’ve never seen before. And he knows how to talk to guys to get their mindset and their competitive spirit to switch on.”

The stakes promise to be much higher next season. With the acquisition of veteran former all-star Brandon Ingram and the $120-million contract extension he subsequently signed, the Raptors’ projected starting five next season will earn $149.4 million collectively and have an average age of 27.6. This is why nabbing a quality prospect in the draft lottery this season is so critical. To the extent the Raptors are rebuilding this season, it will be over save for painting and window trimmings by training camp next season.

Rajaković will then face a new challenge: Helping a team compete and win in the present, not in in the hazy future.

The Raptors have given him the added contract security and the runway to give him the chance to do just that.

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