Darko Rajakovic Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Daigneault, Bickerstaff Named Coaches Of The Month

December 2nd, 2025 at 4:38pm CST by Rory Maher

Mark Daigneault of the Thunder and J.B. Bickerstaff of the Pistons have been named the NBA’s Coaches of the Month for games played in October and November, the league announced in a press release (Twitter links).

Daigneault won the award for the Western Conference, while Bickerstaff claimed the honor in the East.

After Oklahoma City held the best record in the NBA in 2024/25 at 68-14, Daigneault led the defending champions to a 20-1 record over the first month-plus of the season — unsurprisingly, that is once again the top record in the league.

Bickerstaff led the upstart Pistons to a 16-4 record during October and November, the top mark in the East and only trailing the Thunder for the best record in the NBA.

According to the league, David Adelman (Nuggets), Mitch Johnson (Spurs), Jordan Ott (Suns) and Ime Udoka (Rockets) were the other nominees in the West, while Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers), Mike Brown (Knicks), Jamahl Mosley (Magic), Darko Rajakovic (Raptors), Quin Snyder (Hawks) and Erik Spoelstra (Heat) were nominated in the East.

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Maxey, Embiid, Bona, Demin, Rajakovic

November 22nd, 2025 at 12:05pm CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics held their own without injured star Jayson Tatum through the first month of the 2025/26 season and entered Friday’s game with an 8-7 record. However, hosting the lowly Nets, Boston experienced its most discouraging loss of the season, falling 113-105 to a Brooklyn club whose only two previous wins had come against Indiana and Washington.

As Jay King of The Athletic writes, star wing Jaylen Brown expressed frustration after the game with what he saw from his team, suggesting that Boston’s effort level wasn’t where it needed to be “for the majority of the game.”

“Come ready to play, or don’t play at all,” Brown said. “That’s my whole thing. We’ve gotta come ready to play. We just went through the motions today. Like, I don’t understand it. … Regardless if you’re making or missing shots, regardless of anything, we’ve just got to come out and play with great energy, great enthusiasm for the game. Like, want to win. It just didn’t seem like that was the case tonight.”

“… At the end of the day, we’ve all got a job to do,” Brown continued. “We’re all getting paid to do what we love to do. Come ready to play basketball, or you’re doing a disservice. So everybody’s got to come here and be ready to do their job and have great energy, enthusiasm and want to win. That’s what it’s about at the end of day: Celtic basketball.”

Besides losing Tatum to an Achilles tear that is expected to sideline him for most or all of the 2025/26 season, the Celtics traded away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis over the summer, so there’s less talent on the roster than there has been during the past couple years. As a result, the team can’t afford to take any nights off, head coach Joe Mazzulla told King and other reporters.

“I think it’s true of any basketball team, but I think the margin for error is smaller for certain teams,” Mazzulla said. “And the margin for error is smaller for us. We have to be the best. We have to be sharp physically and mentally every night. We’ve understood that that’s a strength of ours when we’re at our best, and we have to try to play at our best.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

Just 24 hours after Paul George told Tony Jones of The Athletic that Tyrese Maxey is the “heart and soul” of the Sixers, the star guard submitted arguably the best performance of his career on Thursday in an overtime win over Milwaukee, with 54 points and nine assists, per Steve Megargee of The Associated Press. Maxey is now the league leader in minutes per game (40.7) and ranks second in scoring (33.4 PPG). “We’re asking him to do so much. We’re asking him to play a ton of minutes and he’s delivering,” George told Jones this week. “… This is similar to what Allen Iverson once did for the city. He’s our battery, and we’re witnessing one of them ones.”
Joel Embiid still has some soreness in his right knee, but Sixers doctors have determined he’s making positive progress toward a return, tweets Jones. The 76ers also said that big man Adem Bona, who is out with a right ankle sprain, will miss at least two more games, Jones adds.
Nets lottery pick Egor Demin was benched for the final 20 minutes of a loss to Boston on Tuesday, according to Dan Martin of The New York Post, who notes that the rookie guard was struggling defensively. However, Demin bounced back on Friday, hitting a big three-point shot in the fourth quarter to help Brooklyn secure an upset victory over the divisional rival Celtics, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “He played so hard, and that’s why he earned the right to be out there. And he showed composure,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said after Friday’s win.
Darko Rajakovic won just 25 and 30 games in his first two years as the Raptors‘ head coach, but he’s making an early case for Coach of the Year consideration this fall, contends Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. While Brandon Ingram‘s arrival and a deeper bench have been difference-makers for the 11-5 Raptors, Rajakovic deserves kudos for integrating Ingram – one of the NBA’s premier isolation scorers – into his “free-flowing” system and getting the most out of that bench, Lewenberg says.

Knicks, Raptors Agree To Dismiss Lawsuit

October 10th, 2025 at 6:00pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Knicks and Raptors have agreed to voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Knicks in 2023, reports Baxter Holmes for ESPN.

The lawsuit alleged that former Knicks employee Ikechukwu Azotam “illegally took thousands of proprietary files with him to his new position” in Toronto at the behest of the Raptors, who looked to gain a competitive advantage.

“The Knicks and (Raptors ownership group) Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment withdrew their respective claims and the matter is resolved. The Parties are focused on the future,” the two teams said in identical statements to ESPN.

The Knicks sought over $10MM in damages, while the Raptors filed a motion aimed at dismissing the charges and called upon league commissioner Adam Silver to adjudicate the proceedings. The Knicks then questioned Silver’s impartiality based on his close relationship with Raptors minority owner Larry Tanenbaum. In response, the Raptors accused the Knicks of dragging out the case for publicity and threatened to counter-sue.

Ultimately, a judge agreed with the Raptors that the matter should be resolved by Silver.

Along with Azotam and the Raptors organization, head coach Darko Rajakovic was listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with player development coach Noah Lewis and 10 unidentified employees.

Holmes notes that the case has now been voluntarily dismissed with prejudice, which means the decision is permanent.

Raptors Notes: Ingram, Walter, Mamukelashvili, More

July 11th, 2025 at 5:00pm CST by Eli Cohen

Raptors forward Brandon Ingram has been cleared for contact, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports reports (via Twitter). This marks a major step in Ingram’s rehab process as he continues to work his way back from an ankle injury that prevented him from playing for Toronto after the team traded for him at the 2024 trade deadline.

Lewenberg writes that Ingram has been participating in individual workouts with the Raptors during the offseason and will start scrimmaging in the next few days. Head coach Darko Rajakovic seems optimistic about the versatile wing’s return.

“He’s pain-free, he’s moving well, he got stronger. He’s in a really, really great spot,” Rajakovic said.

The Raptors traded a pair of rotation players along with a first-round draft pick and a second-round pick to acquire Ingram, who will be counted on to help them take the next step toward sustained competitiveness.

We have more on the Raptors:

Ja’Kobe Walter, the 19th pick in the 2024 draft, is coming into his sophomore season with 12 more pounds of muscle and a readiness to gain some momentum in Summer League, Lewenberg writes for TSN.ca. Walter was beset by injuries as a rookie that made it difficult to get his feet under him until near the end of the season, when things started to click. “That was my first time ever being injured and I got injured plenty of times last year,” Walter said. “It was definitely tough for me, but I learned that I love basketball.” While the Raptors’ starting five appears set, there’s a need for versatile wing contributors off the bench who can mesh with the starters, and a strong summer would go a long way toward cementing Walter’s place in that pecking order.
Sandro Mamukelashvili spoke on Friday about why he chose to join the Raptors and how the international connection matters to him. “Coach Darko is a European coach, understands European style of play,” Mamukelashvili said (Twitter link via Lewenberg). “A lot of young guys who want to get better, get to the next level together. Nothing better than to be part of something like that.” The 6’11” big man also talked about the journeyman start to his career and his search for a more permanent home. “I really want to prove that I’m a rotational piece, that I can be in the NBA for 10 years and leave my mark somewhere,” he said (Twitter link). The four-year veteran spent 65 games with the Bucks before playing the next two-and-a-half seasons with the Spurs. In 2024/25, he averaged 6.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 11.2 minutes per game, while shooting 37.3% from three.
Rajakovic spoke on Thursday about the Raptors’ decision to fire former team president Masai Ujiri. “He brought a lot of success to the organization, but like a lot of things in life, those kinds of situations happen,” he said, per Lewenberg (via Twitter). “We’re going to miss him, but we’re very well equipped to continue moving forward.” Toronto has yet to replace Ujiri, but is expected to look at both internal and external candidates to find a new president.
Summer League wins might not count in the regular season standings, but that won’t stop the Raptors’ Summer League squad from gunning for the championship in Las Vegas, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet. With a large portion of the roster made up of players hoping to be members of the regular season rotation, including Walter, Jamal Shead, Jonathan Mogbo, and recent No. 9 overall pick Collin Murray-Boyles, the team recognizes its chance to develop chemistry and prove itself in the eyes of the team’s higher-ups. “We want to be the team that everybody thinks we should. I think, going into the summer league, we’re all excited to play. We’re all hungry,” Shead said after hosting a four-day training camp at his former high school in Austin, Texas.

Atlantic Notes: Ujiri, Rajakovic, Raptors, Sixers’ Trio, Knicks Bigs

April 17th, 2025 at 10:03pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The Raptors‘ front office, led by president Masai Ujiri, is determined to get the team back into championship contention, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes. In his end-of-season news conference, Ujiri expressed that he wasn’t able to enjoy Toronto’s championship in 2019 as much as he would’ve liked and that all he thinks about is getting his team back to that spot.

“[Our goal] is getting better and adding more players and building this team and growing to be a championship team,” Ujiri said. “A championship is the end goal of all of this, and when that comes, we don’t know, but we have to identify those players and build with those kinds of players.”

The Raptors took a big swing by acquiring Brandon Ingram at the deadline and giving him a multiyear extension before he played a game for the team.

“At the end of the day, you have to acquire talent,” Ujiri said. “We have to do it in a unique way in the market that we’re in and we’ve got to jump on opportunities that come our way, sometimes after we really study them.”

Ujiri’s comments this week represented a departure from the ones he made a year ago, when he expressed a willingness to embark on a multiyear rebuild, Eric Koreen of The Athletic writes. Toronto did maximize its draft talent this year, with rookies Ja’Kobe Walter, Jonathan Mogbo, Jamal Shead and Jamison Battle all stepping up and playing big roles.

“I was really happy with the way these guys played and hopefully their development comes up more and more,” Ujiri said. “Yeah, we tried to attack the odds in the lottery and see what we can do. It’s a good draft. And honestly, wherever we fall, we feel very confident. Our guys have done a lot of work all year. We’re extremely excited.”

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

The pressure to win has been relatively low in Toronto with the team acquiring and developing so many young players, Grange writes in another piece. But with the Raptors‘ focus shifting toward winning, head coach Darko Rajakovic is ready for the team’s next phase and has the full buy-in of his players. “He’s a really good coach. He cares about us. He really does,” RJ Barrett said. “He comes in and he challenges us every single day. And it’s nice when you know that you have somebody that cares about you — makes you want to play even harder for them. Darko’s a guy you can have conversations with about anything, and he’s very helpful. Always teaching, but he listens to us and our ideas. Yeah. So, like, that stuff is great.”
Sixers wing Paul George wants the team’s big three – himself, Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid – to spend more time together this offseason, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “I think that’s very important,” George said. “We’ve already talked about seeing each other, where we’re going to be this summer. So we’ve already had those conversations about connecting once the season’s over. I think it’s very important. I don’t think it’s healthy to go two, three months before seeing each other, regardless of if we’re checking in over the phone. It’s just different seeing each other.“
The Knicks might turn to two-big lineups in the playoffs against the Pistons, Peter Botte of the New York Post writes. Mitchell Robinson and Karl-Anthony Towns only played 47 minutes together this season, but that two-man grouping outscored opponents by 9.2 points per 100 possessions. Head coach Tom Thibodeau said that despite the small sample size, he liked what he saw from that pairing.

Eastern Notes: Stewart, Giannis, McCain, Flagg, Rajakovic

April 5th, 2025 at 3:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart returns from a two-game league suspension tonight when his team hosts the Grizzlies. Stewart’s suspension was handed down due to his involvement in Detroit’s altercation with the Timberwolves on Sunday.

The Pistons have reestablished themselves as a hard-nosed, defensive unit epitomized by their backup center. Stewart wants to set a defensive tone once he enters the game, he told Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press.

“I would say I’m the most versatile defender,” Stewart said. “I’m the best rim protector. I can guard out on the perimeter. I feel like there’s a lot of things that I do on the defensive end that nobody else does, in my opinion, from communicating, being the commander, getting my guys in their spots, always having my guys back. There’s always a shift when I enter the game on defense. Rather that time, their offense slows down while we’re building the lead or their offense slows down while we’re getting back into the game. I always make a shift.”

We have more from the Eastern Conference:

Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo posted a stat line of 35 points, 17 rebounds and 20 assists against the Sixers on Thursday. That was a first in NBA history, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm notes. “When you’re the primary ball-handler, you just gotta keep on making good decisions for the team,” said Antetokounmpo, who set a career high with his assist total. “I feel like most of the time, I try to make the best decision for myself or for my teammates.”
The Sixers’ Jared McCain, a one-and-done player at Duke, would be thrilled if Philadelphia won the lottery and wound up with Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg, he told RG.org’s DJ Siddiqi. “It’d be amazing,” McCain said. “It’d be super cool to have him. He makes every team that he’s on better, so it’d be really cool to just have him on the team. It’s always nice to have someone from Duke by my side. I got a lot of Kentucky people with me, you know what I’m saying? I need some more Duke guys.”
The Raptors have already picked up their 2026/27 option on coach Darko Rajakovic’s contract, ensuring their financial commitment to him for the next two seasons. That players on the roster believe Rajakovic is the right man to bring them back to prominence. “I think his work ethic is incredible and his passion for the sport and for us as a team, for getting us better, it really shows,” Jakob Poeltl told Josh Lewenberg of TSN. “You can tell in practice and games, he’s really adamant about what he wants stuff to look like and I think he has a very clear vision. He’s smart and I think he understands modern basketball really well. He’s been great for us and it’s been showing.”

Raptors Picked Up Option On Rajakovic’s Contract For 2026/27 Season

March 30th, 2025 at 9:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Raptors picked up their 2026/27 option on head coach Darko Rajakovic’s contract last summer, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.

Rajakovic is finished up his second season as the head coach. His bosses have now made a financial commitment to him for the next two seasons.

Toronto began a major rebuild by dealing OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam during the 2023/24 season. The Raptors played a facilitating role in the Jimmy Butler blockbuster and also acquired injured forward Brandon Ingram last month, signing him to a three-year contract extension. Ingram has yet to make his Toronto debut.

Rajokovic has a 53-104 record since replacing Nick Nurse after Toronto defeated Philadelphia on Sunday night.

Rajakovic, who originally hails from Serbia and coached in the Spanish EBA League before arriving stateside, was Memphis’ lead assistant prior to getting the job. He was also an assistant coach with the Thunder and Suns.

Cavs’ Thompson Responds After Raptors Criticize ‘Disrespectful’ Late-Game Dunk

February 13th, 2025 at 6:00pm CST by Luke Adams

An otherwise straightforward Cavaliers blowout of the Raptors in Toronto on Wednesday in the teams’ final game before the All-Star break got a little heated in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.

With the Cavaliers up by 21 points and holding the ball with the shot clock off, veteran center Tristan Thompson drove to the basket and threw down a two-handed dunk with just 4.1 seconds left in the game to extend the lead to 23 (Twitter video link). As the Raptors inbounded the ball and ran out the clock, the home fans booed Thompson, who was confronted after the final buzzer by Toronto forward Scottie Barnes and guard Jamal Shead.

Following some brief shoving, players and coaches from both teams converged to separate Thompson and the Raptors as the two sides exchanged words. Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic criticized the Cavs big man after the game for what he viewed as an unnecessary exclamation point on Cleveland’s victory.

“I think what Tristan did there was no class and disrespectful,” Rajakovic said (Twitter video link via The Toronto Star). “I’m not going to stand for that, for sure. I’m really glad that our guys, our players – Jamal, Scottie, and everybody else – that they stood up for themselves. I love when my team stands up for themselves. That was no class act.”

While Barnes didn’t speak to the media after the game, Shead agreed with his coach, telling reporters that the play was “a little bit disrespectful to the game of basketball, not just us,” per ESPN.

Raptors forward RJ Barrett noted that it’s “kind of an unwritten rule” not to try to run up the score in that situation, and even Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t exactly come rushing to the defense of his player.

“I’m not sure what he was thinking,” Atkinson said, according to ESPN. “Sometimes, though, you’re playing the game, and you just have a reaction. I know with Tristan, there’s no bad intention there. I think just sometimes you’re playing, and the goal of the game is to score. Unfortunate.”

For his part, Thompson – a Toronto native who has played almost exclusively in garbage time for the 44-10 Cavs this season – took to Twitter on Thursday to respond to Rajakovic’s comments and explain his actions.

“You wanna full court press with under a minute left in the game when you get cracked by 30 this will happen to you,” Thompson wrote. “Lose for draft lottery and be happy buddy boy. Hopefully you and most of your guys see the light at the end of (GM) Bobby (Webster) and (president) Masai (Ujiri‘s) long term plan. Bless up stay warm in MY CITY.”

While it’s possible the brief post-game confrontation will result in a fine or two, it didn’t rise to the level to warrant a suspension for any of the players involved.

Atlantic Notes: Rajakovic, Raptors, Knicks, Sixers

January 8th, 2025 at 4:05pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors are as healthy as they’ve been all season, but their on-court results haven’t improved as of late. They fell to a banged-up Orlando team last Friday and were blown out by Milwaukee on Monday, with both losses coming at home. They’ve now dropped 13 of their last 14 games and have an 8-28 record on the season, the third-worst mark in the NBA.

Toronto has been below .500 since opening night, but the club was more competitive early in the season even while dealing with injuries to players like Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynyk, and Bruce Brown. With the Raptors healthier, head coach Darko Rajakovic may begin to face real pressure for the first time if the results don’t start to improve a little, writes Eric Koreen of The Athletic.

For his part, Rajakovic said he’s confident his team will put forth a better effort than what it showed on Monday against the Bucks.

“(It’s the) middle of (a) long season. It’s guys coming back from injuries, guys being without rhythm, guys not playing together,” Rajakovic said. “Again, I don’t want any of those to sound like excuses. We’ve got to be much better in all of those areas. But at the same time, we work hard, and I believe that we’re gonna get out of this slump, and I think we’re gonna be able to play much higher level basketball than we showed (Monday).”

It won’t be easy for Toronto to turn things around in the short term. The club will play a back-to-back set on Wednesday and Thursday against the Knicks and Cavaliers before visiting the red-hot Pistons in Detroit on Saturday.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

In a separate story for The Athletic, Koreen evaluates a series of Raptors-related trade suggestions from readers, including hypothetical deals involving Jakob Poeltl, Chris Boucher, and Brown, among others.
With minor health issues forcing a couple of the Knicks‘ top players to miss games within the last week, Stefan Bondy of The New York Post examines the team’s depth issue, noting that head coach Tom Thibodeau has shown little inclination to expand his rotation to nine players. Getting back a healthy Mitchell Robinson would help matters, according to Bondy, who adds that the club will also consider its options on the trade and buyout markets, though cap constraints will limit the front office’s options.
Joel Embiid (left foot sprain), Paul George (left groin tightness), and Kyle Lowry (right hip soreness) will be unavailable for the Sixers on Wednesday when they host the Wizards, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. It’ll be the second consecutive missed game for both Embiid and Lowry.
The absences of Embiid and George will delay the Sixers‘ ability to further work on the duo’s chemistry, Pompey writes in another story for The Inquirer. Head coach Nick Nurse said earlier this week that he doesn’t have enough data on Embiid’s and George’s two-man game yet and wants to prioritize getting them more reps together.

Raptors Notes: Record-Setting Loss, Shead, Rajakovic, Barnes, Brown

December 31st, 2024 at 9:41pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Raptors closed out their worst calendar year ever with the largest loss in franchise history, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. Toronto lost by 54 points on Tuesday afternoon in Boston, wrapping up a week filled with historic misery. Grange notes that the Raptors gave up a team-record 155 points Thursday in Memphis and set a franchise mark for turnovers in a home game by committing 31 in Sunday’s loss to Atlanta.

The latest defeat wraps up a forgettable 12 months for the Raptors, who were in contention for a play-in spot when 2024 began. Their 20-63 mark since January 1 goes into the record books as the most losses the franchise has suffered in a single year.

Although things look bleak for Toronto, which dropped into 14th place in the East at 7-26, Grange tries to find a few positives for the franchise going into 2025. One of them is the play of rookie guard Jamal Shead, who appears to be a steal with the 45th pick in this year’s draft. Shead combines physical defense with an ability to get into the paint and make quick decisions. His three-point shooting has been a pleasant surprise, as he came into today’s game connecting at 46.7% from beyond the arc.

There’s more from Toronto:

Head coach Darko Rajakovic has done an admirable job of keeping the team together despite its current 11-game losing streak, Grange adds in the same piece. He has focused on improving his young talent, and management appears to be patient even though the Raptors haven’t won much since he took over. “It’s a roller-coaster season, and that’s what we’re going to understand,” Rajakovic said before Tuesday’s game. “There’s going to be ups and downs, and also improvement. Progress is never linear … at some point you get tired, you get bumped, you gotta learn how to bounce back. There is a lot of adversity, and we’re feeling that adversity, and it’s good. We’re gonna use that adversity to our advantage, to get information that we need to improve, to focus on the most important things, and to see the growth. That’s what this whole season is about, and to also learn who can rise to challenge and who cannot.”
Rajakovic told reporters that Scottie Barnes has been dealing with numerous physical ailments over the past 10 days, including ankle and knee soreness and tightness in his core (Twitter link from Grange). He added that Barnes is starting to feel better, saying, “I’m expecting him to make strides.”
One bright spot this week was the return of Bruce Brown, who made his season debut on Sunday following offseason knee surgery, Grange states in a separate story. The versatile swingman, who’s considered to be one of Toronto’s most valuable trade pieces, scored 12 points in 19 minutes. “I felt like myself again,” he said.