Is a coaching change on the way for the Toronto Raptors?

If you’ve watched the Toronto Raptors take the floor this season, there’s probably a good chance you weren’t exactly watching the highest-quality basketball.

While injuries and absences have piled up for Toronto this season, it doesn’t quite explain how listless the team has looked on multiple occasions. And while a rebuilding year was to be expected — Raptors president Masai Ujiri made that much clear on media day before the season — it’s a year that’s been hard to stomach throughout all facets of the organization.

Trades may be coming before next month’s deadline, but it’s hardly expected to be a quick fix. Unlike a year ago when the team had OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam to put out to the trade market, they don’t quite have the same big fish expected to be on the move this year.

But if they’re looking to make a headline-grabbing move to shake things around in the meantime, one idea has been gaining traction in Raptors discussion circles of late: find the successor to second-year head coach Darko Rajakovic.

The cases for and against Rajakovic

Named Nick Nurse’s replacement in June 2023, Rajakovic was offered Toronto’s coaching job after an extensive career that started in the Serbian youth and pro systems and then transferred into three different NBA assistant jobs, as well as a stint in the NBA G League. The type of person who almost always has a smile on their face and a hand to shake, the 45-year-old Rajakovic has preached positivity and patience ever since coming into his role.

According to Raptors general manager Bobby Webster, Rajakovic was approached with the idea of a rebuild when interviewing for the job in Spring 2023.

“You go through all those scenarios, right? We know the team that we were going to put forward, but we also knew the potential changes that could happen. We’re very upfront and communicative [with Rajakovic]. He’s been part of a lot of different NBA franchises. So I don’t think this feels entirely new to him,” Webster said to Daily Hive following last season’s trade deadline.

In a little over his first 100 games in charge with Toronto (he’s at 118), it’s clear that Rajakovic isn’t just sitting on his hands to look for solutions to Toronto’s many problems.

“I’m always trying to learn, learn something new, and I have my notebook where I’m putting all of those thoughts where I need to spend time [improving as a coach],” Rajakovic told Daily Hive during Monday’s pregame. “Some of those projects are projects that I need to work on during the season, and some of those things are for off-season projects.”

But the flip side is that things haven’t been all that good.

With just eight wins to their name so far this season, Toronto has put out one of its roughest products in franchise history. The team’s win percentage of .222 (8-28) thus far pulls ahead of only the 1997-98 edition of the team, who ended up with just 16 out of 82 wins. These Raptors are on pace for 18.

“I think we’ve gotta have that 0-0 mentality for each game, to be able to bring the energy and force and effort,” Rajakovic said.

Even the most positive spin of the Raptors’ direction might take a hit when looking at some of their recent on-court results, including a 155-126 December 26 loss to Memphis that was the most points allowed in franchise history, followed up just five days later with the worst margin of defeat in a loss with a 125-71 shellacking at the hands of the Boston Celtics. Toronto wasn’t expected to be competitive this season, but they’ve hardly looked in the same league as many of their opponents on some nights this year.

Early in the season, competitive losses were a hallmark of the Raptors team, with five losses of five points or less in their first 10 games.

But having now lost 12 of their last 13 games, Toronto has only seen the final score be within five points twice in those defeats.

“I believe that we’re going to get out of this slump, and I think we’re going to be able to play much higher-level basketball than we showed tonight,” Rajakovic added.

“There’s no excuse for what’s happening right now,” Toronto forward RJ Barrett said postgame after a 128-104 loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks. “We have to all be better. We have to lock in.”

What would it take for Raptors to make a coaching change?

MLSE CEO Keith Pelley has had some major decisions to make in his first year on the job. Sheldon Keefe got the boot from the Toronto Maple Leafs gig in Pelley’s second month in charge, while he was tasked with overseeing an internal Toronto FC investigation to determine the future of a now-departed John Herdman following his links to a drone scandal that also cost Canada women’s soccer head coach her job.

While neither job was solely decided by Pelley’s input, you can bet that a decision as big as firing a head coach midseason would at least get run by his office first.

And in under 12 months, Pelley could see himself and his teams parting ways with yet another coach hired before his tenure if Rajakovic gets the boot.

If anything is working in Rajakovic’s favour in the immediate future, it might be that the Raptors have only made two midseason coaching changes in their franchise history, and Ujiri and Webster have never gone through a midseason coaching change while leading Toronto.

Darrell Walker got the boot after an 11-38 start in the aforementioned 1997-98 campaign in favour of Butch Carter, while an 8-9 Sam Mitchell got canned in 2008-09 a little over a month into the season. Mitchell was coming off two straight playoff appearances, while Walker was struggling to find a foothold with the third-year expansion franchise.

On the flip side, Rajakovic’s situation is comparable to neither, given his expectations of patience when coming into the role.

If that patience wears thin among MLSE’s top brass and the Raptors front office, and the losses keep piling up, Rajakovic’s first run at being an NBA head coach might come to an end soon.

You might also like:
• Quickley predicts much-needed "change" on way for Toronto Raptors