The Toronto Raptors have spent the last month meeting with a vast number of potential head coaching candidates after firing Nick Nurse following the season.
On Saturday, word broke from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that they had finally landed on a choice, with Memphis Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic apparently finalizing a deal to become Toronto’s next head coach.
ESPN Sources: The Toronto Raptors are finalizing a deal to hire Memphis Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic as the franchise’s next coach. pic.twitter.com/AEPu64p2F2
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 10, 2023
The Serbian coach has been an NBA assistant since 2014, spending the first five years of his career in Oklahoma City before stints in Phoenix and Memphis. He will take over a Toronto Raptors squad that has a ton of questions to answer this summer, as they are a candidate to potentially tear things down and rebuild, with Fred VanVleet a free agent and trade rumors continuing to swirl around OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam.
If they become sellers, then this figures to be a rebuilding job for Rajakovic with what one would expect to become a young team. If not and they choose to keep most of this core group together, he will have plenty of talent on the roster but will be tasked with figuring out how to make a lot of players with overlapping talents function together in a way they haven’t over the past two seasons.
