OverDrive - Rajakovic on the Raptors at Summer League, his impression of Murray-Boyles, and internal competition

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic on the Raptors at Summer League, his impression of Murray-Boyles, and internal competition

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The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app. ...out of what you're seeing and you certainly have ambitions of your team playing well down there. And I guess I'm speaking for him, but let's go right to the guy himself.

Here he is, the head coach of the Raptors from Vegas, the Summer League. Here's Darko Ryokovic. How you doing, Darko Darko? Doing great guys thank you for having me on the show. Thank you very much. Do you enjoy Vegas? Like is this a work trip? Do you have a little bit of fun? What's it like down there? Well this would be I don't even have any more evidence how many times I came to the Summer League in Las Vegas, probably like 1920 or something like that. Right. So, but it's always really, really fun. I think Summer League is an amazing opportunity to see young players, to see rookies, to see newcomers to the league, to get to know your team even

better and see some other talent. So, I can never get enough of our last week as for the basketball pot absolutely also have some kind of coming many kinds of coming on you will not find it there uh... come out there a little drive by not a slot you wouldn't hit the slots anything nothing so twenty years counted every time for like two weeks more or less here

i never betted a dollar oh wow that's discipline yeah that's it that's exceptional discipline I'd be the complete stating the facts here but in terms of the interactions you have you know like obviously you're down there and you know this is a really especially for a young team like yours you know you guys are up and coming and there's a lot of youth and there's really important players who are playing for you how often do you get a chance to to sit down with a Colin Murray Boyles or a Jacoby Walter and kind of just chat about the way they're playing and the way that they're feeling about things well i'm around the team all the time i mean obviously obviously never practice games. I think it's a

great checkpoint for us in the middle of summer to have those side conversations as well. I had the breakfast meeting with Colt Murray-Bowles this morning just to you know catch up on things to see how's everything going for him. Obviously it's a big transition coming from college to professional level and just giving him some of the tips, you know, what the rest of the summer needs to look like for him and how he can continue growing. Well, what have you seen out of him that leads you to believe that Colin Murray-Boyles can have an impact in his rookie season and actually you know supply you legitimate minutes

as a Raptor in his rookie year? Our front office did a really good job of you know selecting players like Colin Murray Boyles and Elijah Martin this year and also getting a Chucky Hebron on the two-way deal. I think all of those three players that they have gotten the same characteristics and they're really really high-level competitors and our identity and how we want to play and how we want to dictate things in games starts really with a good mindset and starts with that character so I think Colin is obviously did not play since the end of the college season and finding some rhythm in those games but game to game he's finding ways to affect the game with that with his rebounding is that with his playmaking

ability passing ability finishing there, there is a lot of talent there and there is also at the same time a lot of work to be done to help him to continue to grow. Darko, you head into the summer and now you know things start to percolate here, you get to summer league, how much do you start thinking about what your team is going to look like and and maybe where you guys can be in the standings come next season well i i think a lot uh... about first part of the question uh... where we act as a team uh... how we can maximize that talent to over the roster we have how we can continue improving on defense event how we can

you know how i make strides and improve on offense. That's definitely every day on my mind and I'm meeting a lot with coaches and front office and anybody that can actually give me ideas or thoughts and really trying to learn a lot what's next for us. As far as for standings, I don't spend a second time thinking about that. For me, everything is just to be just focused on the things that we control and that's the daily output and the daily work that we put in and how we're gonna prepare every single day for the

training camp and the preseason and then we take it one game at a time and Really put our team in the position that we can win every single night in NBA That has to be our goal that every single night We're gonna step on the floor with ambition and desire and capabilities to win the game Darko now that you have gotten a little closer to getting some some healthy Brendan Ingram minutes for your team, now you're getting to know Ingram a little bit better as a coach. How do you feel about how he's fitting into your roster? Not just on the floor but around your younger guys as well?

I think Brendan Ingram obviously is already established NBA player, all-star player, player that has a lot of talent and I really, really believe that best basketball for him is ahead of him. He's entering his peak and I believe for the next seven, eight, nine years that he's going to be really playing on a high, high level. At the same time, he's such a humble guy and a good person and then just like simple guy and that's what all the players in our team that's what they love about him. He's really excited to be on the young roster with young guys. They're playing hard and I think he's going to be a really good fit for us. And Darko when you look ahead going from from summer league in the camp eventually it

it looks like you guys are starting to stack up talent at some positions here i look at murray boils and mobile i look at ready dick with walter and going down the depth in your roster of sandro mamooka less for a lot of these guys that you are backing up now what role do you think competition is going

to play for you this year maybe more so than last year and how that can get a little more out of this roster young guys going head-to-head I think competition is healthy sports as itself is constantly competing competing with the opponents but also competing with yourself and constantly trying to reach new levels. And sometimes you don't know how much you're capable of doing it unless you have somebody who's forcing you to stretch your limits. And I do think that we have a way deeper roster this year.

And I think that that competition, that multiple position is gonna be very, very healthy for us. And it's gonna take us to another level. I think it's gonna help individually and I think it's gonna help our whole team. With Darko Ryokovic, head coach of the Raptors down in Vegas for Summer League. And one of those additions and in terms of adding

talent and depth would be Brandon Ingram of course and you know you acquired him last year and he didn't get a chance to play yet he was around the team and I'm curious what you've learned about Ingram that you maybe didn't know prior to him being a Raptor and how much you think he can help your team this year? He, as I said, he's established NBA player. He's been in this league for nine, ten years now. He's a prolific scorer. You know, I played against him so many times and he was always a headache trying to find ways to stop him. He just has points in his hands. The way he plays, he plays very unselfishly. He likes to play team ball and that fits in our style really well. I think our group is going to raise his level of performance and I think our group is going to raise his level of the performance and I think he's going to perform on a high high level this upcoming season.

So I think it's a great fit for him and for us. But he is the guy that really loves Toronto. It's amazing. He's loved for the city. Every time when he was visiting the city he fell in love. I'll tell you one thing he does love oxtail so if I can lure him into any restaurant that has oxtail we're gonna have a great meeting and great to get together. Okay I like that there's a lot of good spots in Toronto that'll hook him up. I mean I think he's

gonna be very very comfortable here I don't think there's any questioning that. And there's been a lot of chatter about the 87 turnovers your team has, I guess, created through a few games of the summer league. And when you see a stat like that, when you see a play out, how much of creating turnovers, how much of it is skill and how much of it is will? Wow, that's a really good question. It's both, but it would be really, really hard for me to put percentages on one and the other, but just will without skill is not going to get you far away and just having a skill and not having that will to do it over and over, it's not gonna get you far away. So you do need to have both of those skills.

I'm gonna use that line with my team. You need to have a skill and a will. I like that, sounds good. Yes, get that on a board somewhere. Baby, you know what, if you ever need a little coach appearance, Brian will come to a little talk. Motivational speaking to the team.

Speaking of motivational speaking, we all saw the news with Masai and this is the first time we've had you on since the parting of ways between him and the team. You know, what can you say about your experience in dealing with Masai and what you learned from that? Well, I'm always going to be grateful for the opportunity that Masai gave me to be head coach of Toronto Raptors. I think that he's an exceptional professional. I think he did a very good job with the team, but in professional sports situations like this always happen. And all we got to do is stick together and continue moving forward. That's what he would want from us as well.

Does it affect your day to day? I'm curious how often Masai was in the coaches room talking with you last season. I mean, he was not a lot in coaches room, but we were constantly communicating and having discussions about a team and uh... what's next for us uh... you know about uh... day-to-day uh... things uh... for us they don't change much for focusing on uh... preparation for practicing for the games uh... focusing on our guys and really trying to go about the business as usual

all right dark on the wire twenty bucks for on red for me on your way out of Vegas, please. Sounds good. All right, thank you for doing this. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, guys. There's Darko Rayokovich. Incredible restraint and discipline. That's amazing. 20 years in Vegas, not one penny on the felt. And I'm not a big nut. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love.

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