Darko Rajakovic
The Raptors open the regular season Wednesday night in Atlanta with the best roster of Darko Rajakovic’s coaching tenure.
The conversation this year isn’t focused on development, and no one has uttered the word “rebuilding” since training camp began.
There are higher goals to chase, a playoff spot to earn and it should be a whole new world for the head coach heading into his third year.
Maybe Rajakovic can see the balance, that making players better can feed into making the team better. A hand-in-glove pursuit of a bigger accomplishment.
“There is no different pressure at all,” Rajakovic said of the Raptors season that begins against the Hawks in Atlanta on Wednesday night. “We are developing, we’re still looking to develop players, we’re still going to be focused on the growth, and at the same time that’s why we are here. We live to compete. That’s what we are building the team for. I think those two things go hand in hand.”
To be sure, Rajakovic has a better roster to work with than in his first two seasons. A newly constituted starting five including Brandon Ingram should be better, and that means the second unit should be better. After two seasons when the franchise chased development and growth, now it’s chasing success.
“He’s done a great job of instilling a new culture,” general manager Bobby Webster said of the coach. “Guys play hard every night, they compete.
“I think the first two years, the seasons were broken up. So this is the first year where everyone is on the same page as far as we’re going to compete every single night. The first year, we had the big trades. And last year was probably really the first year of rebuilding, and we had so many injuries earlier it really knocked everyone off the path.
One of Rajakovic’s strength is his ability to reach players at many levels. His willingness and eagerness to talk to them about things away from the game is a well-known fact, and his teaching skills are well-documented. But if there’s one thing he’s learned with the Raptors, it’s that taking a step back works.
“I love being with players (teaching on the court) but over the last two years I was really blessed to be on an amazing coaching staff,” he said. “When I’m watching my assistant coaches working with our players, it’s like: Yeah, I would do the same thing.
“Obviously I’m going to step in to have that sweat equity with the players and be there with them, but I absolutely trust my coaches in that player development role.”
Rajakovic is fighting a bit against NBA convention with how he’ll ask the Raptors to play. A high-speed, high-tempo, high-energy defensive style predicated on ball pressure to create steals and turnovers — leading to easier transition offence — sounds like a winner, but it exacts a physical toll.
“I’m not afraid of challenges. I’m going to try new things, and the only way you can learn if something works for you and your team is to give it a try,” he said. “So I am not afraid to fail. I’m not afraid to try new things and see how it works, and understand it’s a process. There is always something to learn along the way. It’s constantly learning.”
“No, because a big part of winning is failing. Because some of the most valuable lessons that you learn in your life, in your playing career, coaching career, they come from losses,” he said. “They don’t necessarily come from good moments. Understanding that we can win the game or we can learn something from it (if) we lost. We have to keep that mentality.
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