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Doc Rivers offers up his thoughts on struggling Toronto Raptors

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
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Jan 7 2025, 4:06 pm
Doc Rivers offers up his thoughts on struggling Toronto Raptors
Benny Sieu/Imagn Images

Few people outside of the Toronto Raptors organization have got a better sense of what the last few years have looked like for the franchise than the coach who faced off against them on Monday.

Two and a half years ago, Doc Rivers was facing off against the Raptors in their last playoff series, with his Philadelphia 76ers finding the better of Toronto in six games.

Thirteen months ago, Rivers was back in the media chair, working for ESPN’s broadcast team while also predicting the Raptors would eventually rebuild while on an episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, just a few short weeks before they eventually dealt Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.

And yesterday, Rivers was back in Toronto for his first game as a coach since October 2022, now holding the cards for the Milwaukee Bucks.

“I’ve gone through several [rebuilds]. They’re not fun, and then they are fun [if your team improves],” Rivers said to Daily Hive on Monday.

Just eight coaches in league history have worked more NBA games than Rivers, with San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich the only active bench boss with more experience than Rivers.

In comparison to Toronto’s Darko Rajakovic, Rivers’ time as an NBA head coach has been 16 times as long, being in charge of five different franchises since his first NBA coaching gig with the Orlando Magic in 1999.

Rivers offered up some thoughts about the job ahead for Rajakovic, with the floundering Raptors having now lost 12 of their last 13 games.

“For a coach, you’re coaching way more [when you have a rebuilding team] in some ways, and there’s some joy in that,” Rivers said.

He has found his way into the NBA playoffs for 16 of the last 17 seasons he’s coached, a feat that Rajakovic is still trying to accomplish with these Raptors, who entered the season with an average age of 25.273.

“[One of the challenges of a rebuild is] getting a young team to play together, I think  [Rajakovic] is doing a great job of it,” Rivers added. “Young guys tend to compete against each other… They’re all competing to be the man. I think Scottie [Barnes] has pretty much established himself as that, but everybody else is vying to be the next guy. Trying to get guys to play in their role and play together as a young team, is really [a challenge].”

For a Toronto team that’s 27th in the NBA this season, they can only hope a few young, talented players emerge from the struggling Raptors that help them with their long-term rebuild.

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