Darko Rajakovic on Christian Koloko, Raptors players grasping system

Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic discusses his offensive/defensive principles and how well players are understanding the schemes. He also provides a brief update on Christian Koloko and Precious Achiuwa.

Video Transcript

- How is Precious doing today? We saw him shooting.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Doing much better. He's feeling better. He did a little bit of the work today on the court. He did a great job in treatments and the weight room. So he is progressing really well.

- How about Otto? We didn't see him in the scrimmage or the game. We didn't hear of any new injuries. So is there a plan to get him into games before the season starts?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Hopefully. Today was the day he played three-on-three live against some younger guys on the roster. He did really well today. So hopefully we're going to see him in the pre-season.

- And then--

- Sorry.

- I was just going to say, in keeping with all the talk about injuries, I mean, Christian's the one-- that you guys are-- the one-- the respiratory problem that you talked about on media day, is that something that could be career-threatening? Or is that something-- like, can he overcome this? It's just sort of vague right now. We don't know.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: And we'll keep it that way for now.

- It's going to stay vague?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Yes.

- In terms of your defensive performance against the Kings, you had, I think it was, like, 13 deflections in the second quarter or something. Is that a number-- do you have a number in mind that you're really pursuing? Do you have goals in that respect? And if so, why and how?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Do you have a mic in our coaches meetings? [LAUGHTER] Yes, absolutely. We talked about it. We're still looking at our team and where we need to be. We're playing around that number. And in this game, we had 31 deflections. And our goal, something that we're going to try to achieve in every game, is going to be around three to two deflections.

- And just because that's-- like, what's an average? Do you know what a roughly league average for deflections?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: It's not three, two. And it's not close to that number. But our length, and our speed, and just our aggressiveness allows us to do that. In the first half only, Pascal had six deflections. And we pointed it out to our team. We started a game having only two in the first quarter. We had 13 in the second. You're right about that. So that's something definitely that we're going to focus on.

- And in terms of your approaches, your schemes, how do you always find that balance between going all-out four steals, passing lanes, being very aggressive, and not getting caught out of position?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: For sure. For me, deflections are not necessarily part of gambling. It's how we pressure the ball. It's how we are guarding DHOs, M our active hands in pick and rolls. It's not necessarily going all-out and just to try to go for steals. We're not going for steals. We're going for deflections. And those are coming inside our team schemes.

- Sticking on the defensive end, with Jakob, he's maybe not the best rim protector, but very good at it. And he's maybe not the fastest center, but he's pretty nimble for that size. What do you-- how do you want him playing within that system? Do you really want him sticking by the rim? Or does he have a bit more leeway to come out and help on screens or whatever the situation may be?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: So for majority of our screening situations, we will not demand him to go out and overhelp.

- Yeah.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Especially like off-ball screens or DHOs. We want to keep him kind of in the same line with the rollers to keep him closer to the rim.

- Yeah.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: But definitely, there will be situations and adjustments that we'll go and switch, one through five. So that's going to get him outside the 3-point line.

- What do you see as his greatest strength, defensively?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Know-how. Like, he's really good at positioning himself. As you said, he's pretty quick but not the quickest, pretty athletic but not the best athlete.

- Yes.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: He just knows how to position himself really well to use his hands, to protect the rim. That's his strength.

- Dennis, you guys have talked about how you guys kind of immediately clicked on a personal level early on. I'm wondering, stylistically, do you think there's anything to the fact that you both have backgrounds in European basketball that made that mesh stylistically easier for the two of you?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Probably. I did not think about in those terms. But probably, yes. In Europe, from youngest age, we're trying to coach and teach players how to play with pace, how to play with a lot of passing. We're actually teaching a lot of passing. So that's kind of the style the majority of the teams in Europe play. So probably has something to do with that, as well.

- Coach, kind of having a broader view in a few days, now, to watch back the game, kind of what stands out to you in terms of the big points that you liked, and then stuff that you want to clean up? I'm sure turnovers might have been one of them.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: So today we had a video that we showed defense, and focused a lot on clean-up defensively, stuff that we need to do a better job of, from closing the gap, from not allowing any looseness on defense, just so we can play with our length and physicality. Tomorrow is going to be heavy offensive day.

And we're just learning. There is so much for us. In the middle of the game, I liked our performance for the moment. By watching film, I liked it even more. But I found even more mistakes and opportunities for us to grow. So we're just at the beginning of a long, long journey.

- Do you find that they're picking everything up pretty fast, though?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: For the biggest part. We're not also going heavy with the information and overloading. But for now, guys, they're doing a really good job. I'm very happy how coachable they are.

- On the subject of passing, in the past you've spoken in a podcast forum about how you're OK with turnovers at times. So I'm wondering if you could just talk about your philosophy with that the balance between making a lot of passes, but also, are you OK with turnovers in some situations?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: If you look at the teams that won championships and really move the ball, turnovers are going to happen. You cannot play with big number of passes, and everybody cutting and moving without making mistakes. Obviously, we need to take care of the ball. We need to do a better job of taking care of the ball. And that's going to come with better execution, with better understanding of schemes, with guys playing more with each other.

In this game, a lot of times it happened that they denied us, and we did not have good counter to that. And that's something that we talked about it today. And in the practice, guys started punishing defense on those situations.

So it's a process. It's going to take some time. But San Antonio, when they were winning championships, they were in the middle of the pack with turnovers. They were not the best or the worst. But they were in the middle of the pack. Same thing with Golden State. So we want to be able to move the ball. And occasionally, it's going to come with some cost.

- It seems like you guys have a new 3-point line extra deep on the court. I don't think was here last year. Is that something that you wanted? Or are you wanting these guys to take logo 3's occasionally?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: That's just to confuse media, you know? [LAUGHTER] And no, we put that line just for our spacing, to help with our spacing, not necessarily for us to take shots from there. It's not to take shots there. It's just like they're our offensive positioning and offense needs to start.

- And when it comes to Jeff, a guy we didn't see the other night, what have you seen from him so far in training camp, I guess? And what do you see, his future with this group?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Jeff is very hard worker. He is amazing competitor. I feel bad for him for not being able to play in the Summer League. I thought that he lost a little bit of momentum there. But since then, he's doing amazing job. He had a great open gym, great three weeks in LA. He's just the guy that brings it every single day. And we like Jeff a lot.

- Is helpful to you to have a week between games and a full week of practice to institute your new system? Is that nice to have all that practice time?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: It is. It is. Especially in my first year, there is a lot of things that we need to get better at and clean up. So having a little bit of extra time between those games it does help us.

- We were talking to Jalen. What have you seen from him so far and what did you see from him, in particular on Sunday, that you liked?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: I thought that he started the game a little bit slow, like our whole team. But he found a niche during the game. I really like his defense, the way-- his ability to get deflections, ability to get over the screens, to change shots. And offensively, I think there is another layer to his game. And I think that he can be very, very good cutter, especially inside of our system, the way we want to play.

I think he's a good 3-point shooter and somebody who can continue to develop. I think he's already a really good player, but I expect from him to take it to another level.

- Thanks, Darko.

- Thanks, Darko.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Thank you. Save some questions for tomorrow.