'We love him': Raptors won't quit on Rajakovic

Evaluating a coach is never as simple as counting wins and losses, especially at the professional level.

There are numerous questions to consider. What stage of the competitive cycle is the coach's team in, and what are the franchise's short-term goals? How healthy are they? What's transpired off the court? How did the coach manage personalities and jibe with the team's most important players?

It can be particularly tough to assess a coach in the position of second-year Raptors boss Darko Rajakovic. Toronto entered the season happily admitting this would be a rebuilding year, with an understanding that the club would prioritize lottery odds over wins. As Rajakovic himself conceded on opening night, this season would be more about the process than the results. He may as well have used Ty Lue's old adage about wins and lessons.

In the three months since, an injury-ravaged version of the Raptors outperformed expectations early, a healthier group looked like the worst team in the league, and now the pre-deadline edition of the squad is winning too much for some fans' liking.

What can be gleaned from such a hodgepodge of results? Perhaps the only thing we can say for certain is that the Raptors haven't quit on Rajakovic. Far from it.

That might sound like the bare minimum, but given the position the Raptors were in, it's actually remarkable. Toronto lost 16 of 17 games at one point to drop to 8-31. In addition, the Raptors' 23-year-old franchise player has battled through multiple injuries this season and already signed an extension that runs through 2030, while the team's veterans are viewed almost entirely as trade chips. In other words, there wasn't much to play for in the second half of the season (unless you believe Scottie Barnes can sneak onto an All-NBA team and earn an extra $45 million on said extension).

Most groups facing those circumstances would've let go of the rope long ago. If the Raptors weren't living and dying with every possession while 20 games under .500 in January, no one would've blamed them (if anyone was even still paying attention). Instead, they've responded by winning seven of their last eight games, mostly against postseason-caliber competition, with Barnes playing some of the most inspired two-way ball of his career.

The obvious question, then, is why haven't the Raptors phoned it in when they had every excuse to do so?

"Because we're focused on process, development, and things that we control," Rajakovic told theScore a few minutes after hosting a coaching clinic in Toronto for coaches of all levels. "We did not control the bunch of injuries that happened to us early in the season. We did not control the outsized effect of the schedule - the first 20 games were against extremely good teams. What we do control is our mentality and our effort. Are we going to be good teammates? Are we going to treat people around us the right way?"

Controlling what you can control is an easy mantra to preach but a difficult ethos to live by, especially when toiling away on a tanking team in the dog days of winter. As Rajakovic tells it, the work Toronto puts into building chemistry has helped the Raptors stick together and continue playing for each other through adversity.

"I think our guys spending time together over the summer was very important," the coach said. "When we go to team dinners, we're trying to keep cell phones away, so they can actually talk to each other and connect. There's a human component there that we're really trying to stress to our guys, that it's important for them to be connected and to care about people around them."

If that sounds too idealistic for your jaded view of pro sports, consider the perspective of Barnes, who had no shortage of answers when asked how Rajakovic has kept his team engaged and enthused.

"Darko does a great job of communicating with us every day," Barnes told theScore. "He really cares about us, and I feel like that's what's most important - him being able to build a relationship with each and every single player, caring about their lives off the floor. He brings a whole different perspective about him. We love him for that. He cares about us as human beings. His spirit, pride, and everything he's about, he's just a great guy."

Barnes isn't the only Raptor who's praised Rajakovic's communication skills. Reserves Davion Mitchell and Chris Boucher - the latter of whom has been among the league's best bench players over the last month - have both discussed how Toronto's coaching staff has been honest and transparent about their evolving roles.

Games won't be won by good vibes and intangibles alone. But there are promising signs the Raptors are taking to Rajakovic's basketball philosophies just as they are his lessons on life. They often run good actions coming out of timeouts, and a year-and-a-half after Rajakovic first installed his movement-heavy system, Toronto ranks fifth in passes per game, third in assist percentage, and third in Cleaning The Glass' location effective field-goal percentage (which measures the efficiency of a team's shot profile rather than its' results).

Those numbers suggest the bones of a great offense are in place if Toronto can just find more talent and shooting.

There are still questions to ask on the defensive end, where the Raptors rank 24th or worse for the second time in as many years under Rajakovic. However, it's worth noting that with Mitchell starting at the point of attack and Barnes finding another defensive gear, Toronto owns the league's second-ranked defense since Jan. 13, per NBA.com. Even RJ Barrett is defending lately.

Of course, when you own a winning percentage of .310 through a season-and-a-half, there's also plenty to nitpick. Rajakovic's challenge strategy could use some work, while his timeout management and late-game play-calling in a number of close early-season losses left something to be desired. The assumption that Rajakovic was hired to be a rebuilding coach who'll merely serve as a bridge to the next great Raptors team might be unfair, but he's also too unproven to definitively be deemed the guy.

Still, he's made the most of the cards he was dealt. Rajakovic's debut season was derailed by dysfunction sown long before he arrived, and Toronto's two most accomplished players at the time (Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby) were traded by January. Then, just when a younger team began to rally around Barnes, the All-Star forward suffered a season-ending injury that tanked the Raptors. Rajakovic will tell you he makes no excuses, but the fact remains his first two seasons on the job have seen him either coaching with one hand tied behind his back or coaching a team designed to lose.

The coach, his team, and his franchise star have emerged from that rubble as connected as ever. That's no small feat and a massive win for a franchise less consumed with on-court victories at the moment.

Rajakovic has proved he was the right person for the rebuilding job Toronto had in mind. He's at least earned the chance to find out whether he can be the right person for the team's next task, too.

Joseph Casciaro is theScore's lead Raptors and NBA reporter.