Darko Rajakovic on what the film revealed from loss to Trail Blazers

Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic discusses what has to improve for the halfcourt offence to become more consistent.

Video Transcript

- How hard is that to, I mean, I'm sure you're doing it in practice, how hard is it to translate into a game when there's different plans to resist that?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: It is hard, but it's also some of the things that we can control. And today in the video session and on the court, we we addressed them, like playing against switchers. We were not physical enough. We did not look to slip. We were coming way too high to set screens. Our angles of screens slipping out, creating angles for passing, spacing behind that is what we control and what we need to do better job of.

Pace in a half court also starts with how quickly we bring the ball up the floor. And several times, we were slow in bringing the ball and starting our possession with 14, 13 seconds on the shot clock. So those are the things that we addressed this morning and talked about and looking to improve for next game.

- It's a little thing maybe, but there were a few times last night where there was only one guy back to get the ball, and then you get pressed and it takes longer. Is that something you focus on after a basket and make sure there's two guys back there so there's that outlet valve to get the ball up quicker?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Yeah, even in those situations, when we get that, we want our firemen to go and get a screen for the point guard, point guard to bring the ball. But even in those situations, a couple of times, point guard was open we just did not pass the ball to him.

So it made somebody else to bring the ball up the floor. Every time after free throws, after made basket, we need to have our point guard with pace and force bringing the ball up the floor. They're going to try to pick up full court. We need to be able to set a screen in the back court and bring the ball and get us enough offense past.

- Coach, we're four games in now. How much of a reflection do you take the record so far, it's a long season, as a reflection of the team or how much they have left to go? And do you think-

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: I mean, I always, when I look at it, I see half a glass full. I look on the positives and I look what we can be and what we need to do and what's in our control. We allowed those guys last night to have 15 offensive rebounds. And that's a reoccurring problem for us, defensive rebounding. We're really good in open court and in transition, but those are 15 wasted opportunities that we had a chance to go and run and then score easy.

And when you have the night, that actually last night, we touched the paint a lot, actually last night, we had a potential assists at 70%. But when you shoot four from 29, everything else gets magnified. Every little defensive situation, everything on offense, everything gets magnified. Our margin to win games is not big, so we need every player to contribute. And we need to take care of the ball and the rebounds and make some shots.

- How do you attribute the rebounding? Is there such an eagerness to get out in transition that there's not quite the help? Or what do you see?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: No, I don't think it's that. I just think there were a couple of situations, they are shooting from the three point line and we have four guys turning around and looking at the rim. The only time you're going to get a ball that way is if they make a shot. If they miss, you don't have a chance. So it's something that we've got to do a better job. And guys spoke about it today between themselves. And I see our group is a very prideful group, a very resistant group, and I think that we're going to have appropriate reaction.

- After a night like last night, is the majority of the time, like this morning, spent on offense alone? Because your defense has been good other than the rebounding.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Defense has been good, but also with our offensive struggles, we need our defense to be even better. So, yes, we watched a defensive film and offensive edit as well. It's early in the year. We're watching a lot of film, and we're in the practice today. We worked on both offense and defense.

- Coach, how could you get Gary some better looks on offense? It seems like he's off to a slow start to the season.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: I don't have the ball in my hand, so I cannot pass the ball to Gary. It's our team that needs to recognize what kind of shooter he is, to put him in situations that when they are helping off of him. And it's his also he needs to work better off the ball, getting to his spots, and we as a team, we just need to do a better job of finding him on the court. So we definitely need Gary to shoot more threes and to make those for us.

- But last season we saw that Gary struggled off the bench but he was pretty productive with the starters. Maybe that same trend is happening right now. What do you think is the reason for that?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: I don't know the reason for that, but like one game that OG did not play, he came, he was a starter and he did really well. I don't know if that's just the way guys are meshing on the court or whatever it might be the case, but he also depends a lot to have a starting point guard there, to find him in those situations, to recognize where he is on the floor, to call those plays for him on a fly.

Obviously, I'm trying in timeouts. I'm trying going after free throws. But I'm not able to call every single time down the court to call plays because of the pace that we want to play with. So it's up to all of us to make sure that he's getting good looks.

- Coach, any reaction to the big trade that happened this morning between the Sixers and the Clippers and how much does it change the complexion of what you're going to do on Thursday when you face the Sixers?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: We got Milwaukee tomorrow, and we did not talk about that. And we have more important things that we need to take care of us and not worry about our opponents at this point.

- What have you made of this team's shot guy? We talked about the shot spectrum earlier in pre-season and stuff. How have you felt the balance has been?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: I think it's been good. I think we have good intentions. But it's one of those things like night before when we made 17 threes, we felt good about it. And then last night, we don't make those shots and then they're not-

It's nature. I thought that we had this 7 or 8 more opportunities to take threes. The guys were hesitant to take those because they missed the previous one or previous two shots. And it's one of those things, like look at our guys. Jimmy's popping. Guys are putting the work in. If you're putting the work in, you're working on the game, you've got to be able to shoot those in the game and trust that you're going to make those shots.

So then it's a human nature when things are not going the way you want and we are teaching like, oh, let me break off this play, let me take to some different area on the court to take those shots. So you've got to trust the work and you got to trust the open shots.

- Any update on Precious?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Precious, he's going to get to work out today. He's feeling better. But we don't have any update more than that, when he's going to be available.

- Just an individual workout today?

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Just an individual, not nothing-

- Yeah.

DARKO RAJAKOVIC: Yeah, just nothing.