Learn about new Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic

New Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic has a rich history of development and coaching in the NBA that coincides with an intriguing view to basketball.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: And one of the candidates that's been rumored for the Toronto Raptors head coaching vacancy, as I mentioned, Darko Rajakovic, who is kind of a basketball whisperer, from my mild, mild research on him. But I mean, you wrote some stuff on him. And you obviously have a lot of information that the people would love to hear.

So please, just off the bat, why do you think the Raptors are interested in him possibly being their next head coach?

DAMICHAEL COLE: I mean, he-- I knew this day would come sooner or later for him because he has the intangible part of it. He's a basketball guy through and through. He's one of those coaches-- Nick Nurse in a way, Taylor Jenkins, a lot of these coaches now, where they just make their way through coaching school, as he was.

He just basically said, hey, I'm going to be a coach. And he just learned through the system of how to become a coach, got a couple of opportunities, worked his way up through the D-league, G-league, developmental system. And now he's the lead assistant for the Grizzlies.

So he's kind of worked his way up just coaching all the way through, a very charismatic guy. And every time I see him, he stops, shakes my hand. Hey, how are you doing? Just the little things like that, every assistant coach isn't that way.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

DAMICHAEL COLE: Darko goes out of his way to create those relationships with people. It's very genuine with him. We got him, actually, as the lead coach for-- I don't remember how many games it was. I want to say maybe three or four games last season. You remember when the COVID protocols and everything was going on. Then Taylor Jenkins also had a family situation.

So there was a period where Taylor was out, and Darko kind of stepped in. And he's a good guy. One word-- and we'll talk about this more as the episode goes on here. But the word that he loves to use is swag. And the players laugh so much.

AMIT MANN: I saw that, yeah.

DAMICHAEL COLE: Oh, and they laugh. Oh, if you say something-- you'll say the word swag. They'll say, oh, Darko must have told you that, because it's his buzz word with the team.

AMIT MANN: The Grizzlies do play with a lot of swag. So I mean, clearly, there's been an influence there on the team. And just going off some of the articles that I read that you wrote about him, it seems like he has is his footprint on a few of the players, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson, Zaire Williams.

All these guys have to give some credit to Darko on their development and where they are. He also-- he wrote an academic journal on the evolution of the pick-and-roll. That's pretty impressive.

DAMICHAEL COLE: Yeah, he comes from that school. When you think international basketball and the things that are kind of prioritized, where you're talking about passing-- in America, it's the 0.5 system right with Mike Budenholzer. Monty Williams runs it now. Taylor Jenkins emphasizes 0.5 basketball.

But you look at Darko, it's very-- you talk about the pick-and-roll. He's very fond of the pick-and-roll. But it's not a drive pick-and-roll, so to speak. It's not, hey, pound the ball in Luka's hands for 15 seconds, and then you try to manipulate a switch, and then you just attack that.

It's pick-and-roll, create mismatch, find that mismatch, and go. He's very quick into getting into situations, a very smart guy. I thoroughly enjoyed, for the small period of time where he was the acting head coach last season and we got to talk to him for that time period. Thoroughly enjoyed talking to him.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. It's revealing how different the Grizzlies play when Ja Morant is on the court versus off.

DAMICHAEL COLE: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: It's like two different teams almost.

DAMICHAEL COLE: It is, it is. Because with Ja, the pick-and-roll is more heavy, whereas without Ja--

AMIT MANN: Naturally too, it makes sense. You have a downhill guy like him, he is the play. Why wouldn't you?

DAMICHAEL COLE: Exactly. So you're getting to the strength of your guys at the end of the day in that situation. So with Tyus, why would you do more pick and roll when he-- that's not his game, getting downhill, getting into the teeth of the defense, he's not the super-athlete like Ja where he's going to do reverse layups over 7-footers and things like that. That's Morant.

Tyus Jones, it's more, hey, let's move the ball around. Let's attack, dribble drive, get guys open, run our sets, and things like that. And Darko is a big part of why those things work. And I'm sure you probably read, but Taylor Jenkins leans on him so much.

There are so many times just throughout a game-- my seat is right there courtside, right, pretty much right to the right of the Grizzlies bench. And there are so many times--

AMIT MANN: Damn, OK, that's not bad.

DAMICHAEL COLE: It's pretty good, right? But you get a lot of things in that seat. And one of those things is Taylor Jenkins sometimes, when he's standing up, Darko will come right over there in the coaching box, right where he is. And he'll whisper in his ear, bark something out. Sometimes he'll do it directly to the players.

But it's him more than any other coach. Darko is very active. At the end of the day, you look at the Grizzlies, he's very active in what this team is doing and what they have done.