Toronto Raptors Head Coach Darko Rajakovic and President Masai Ujiri speak to the media after team’s season ends.
The Toronto Raptors held end-of-season availability for head coach Darko Rajakovic Tuesday morning and Vice President Masai Ujiri Wednesday morning this week. With the end of the Raptors season, many questions looked ahead to the future of the Raptors, but especially how they expect to perform next season. It feels like all the moves the Raptors made this year were in order to be able to perform better by next season.
There is definitely optimism about that around the team, as the players expressed it on Monday as well. Darko, who always has been one to be vocal in his support for his players, was optimistic about next season. Yet, Darko did spend a lot of time on the podium talking about his own coaching journey and how he hopes to evolve as a coach throughout the offseason.
“I don’t have an ego”
Darko told the media that he doesn’t have an ego — a good quality to an NBA coach. Maybe his most banging line of the whole thing was him saying that if he wanted to make people happy, he would sell ice cream instead of being an NBA coach. In his one-on-one meetings with players this season, he asked them for honest feedback on how he can improve as a coach this season. He asks the same of his coaching staff, saying he takes all of the feedback into account when thinking about his own development this offseason.
Masai Ujiri has glowing reviews of his coach, whose contract he extended not long ago. When asked what he thinks of the culture of this team currently, Ujiri gave it an “A+” citing Darko as a huge part of that.
Darko will definitely be judged with a bit more expectation next season as this team moves into the next phase of their rebuild. The players don’t seem worried though, with RJ Barrett asking media in his availability “have you seen Darko draw up plays?” The coach is in constant communication with his players and his expectations around them, which many players say is why they have so much trust in him.
As for the rebuild itself, Ujiri was confident in the team’s progress this year and into next.
There are only so many ways to build a team
Ujiri’s three step process to rebuilding is quite simple: trades, free agency, draft. Not much surprise there. He’s always been extremely meticulous with his moves — open about when he fails but continuously confident in himself about the next step. It’s what makes him a good basketball executive, as you can’t be making moves with half-confidence.
The moves he made this season — trading for Ingram, drafting the rookies, other trades — he believes will move the team forward next season. He is confident ownership will be okay with being in the tax next year if the product is good enough. When it comes to players (especially Scottie Barnes) thinking they will be a playoff team, Masai very much liked to hear that. It’s a good sign, he said, that players are thinking like that.
Heading into the draft lottery
One thing about Ujiri is that he knows how to draft — he even mentioned today how he got his start in scouting. Save for a few unavoidable missteps, draft prospects under Ujiri’s tenure have been extremely good, especially when you think about where he has found some of these players in the draft. Second round and undrafted players turning into All-Stars, making risky lottery picks and watching them turn into stars.
Now going into the draft lottery, Masai is hopeful, but also knows they will get a good guy no matter what pick they get. He’s excited about the prospects in this draft, a sentiment he even shared last year when their lottery pick was handed over to the Spurs.
The attention and focus now turns to that, as we have about a month until the draft lottery and two months (and change) until the draft. The Raptors have the 7th best odds in the draft, meaning that they have about a 30% chance of leaping up into the top four. It’s a great place to be in a deep draft.
As always, Masai also reiterates many times in his presser, “we will win again in Toronto.”