By Jordan Long
The Toronto Raptors had been looking for a Head Coach since they fired Nick Nurse on April 21st, 2023. The search is now over. They are hiring Darko Rajakovic to replace Nurse. The terms of the agreement haven’t been announced.
Nurse had been the Head Coach of the Toronto Raptors since the 2018 season. The Raptors were very successful with him as Head Coach. Toronto earned a playoff spot in 3 of his 5 seasons. In 2019, Toronto advanced to the NBA Finals and knocked off the Golden State Warriors in 6 games to claim the franchise’s first and only championship to this point.
This past season, Toronto finished 41-41, good enough for 10th in the Eastern Conference, earning a play in tournament spot. Their season though came to a close when the Chicago Bulls beat them 109-105. The Raptors saw enough of Nurse and let him go. This was very surprising since he coached them to an overall record of 227-163, a winning percentage of .582.
The Raptors had plenty of choices for them as they started a head coaching search. They could have gone after Mike Budenholzer, Frank Vogel or Terry Stotts. All of them have head coaching experience in the NBA. Mike Budenholzer and Frank Vogel both have NBA Championships as head coaches. They didn’t even give those coaches a call. The only coach
they considered with NBA head coaching experience as a finalist for the job was Kenny Atkinson. Atkinson may have made sense. He coached the Brooklyn Nets from 2016 to 2020. His overall record there was 118-190, a winning percentage of .383. He deserved a second chance. The Raptors feel Darko Rajakovic is a better fit.
Rajakovic has never been an NBA Head Coach. The knowledge he has is as an Assistant Head Coach. He was with Oklahoma City from 2014 to 2018. For the 2019 to 2020 season, Rajakovic went to Phoenix. For the past 3 years, he has been in Memphis.
This is Rajakovic’s opportunity to lead an NBA franchise as a Head Coach. He can take what he has learned as an assistant into this job. The worst case is Toronto doesn’t become a championship contender and misses the playoffs. If that happens, they will let him go and start over.
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