{"id":739593,"date":"2026-07-02T20:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/739593\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T20:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T20:20:09","slug":"raptors-agree-to-multiyear-contract-extension-with-coach-darko-rajakovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/739593\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors agree to multiyear contract extension with coach Darko Rajakovic"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO (AP) \u2014 The Toronto Raptors<\/a> have agreed to a multiyear contract extension with coach Darko Rajakovic<\/a>, who will soon lead a team featuring Kawhi Leonard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Raptors announced the agreement on Thursday, days after making a blockbuster deal to bring Leonard back the franchise he led to the 2019 NBA title.<\/p>\n

Rajakovic led Toronto to 46 wins last season, guiding the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2022 before losing in Game 7 of an first-round series against Cleveland. He helped the Raptors bounce back from winning 30 or fewer games the previous two seasons under him. Rajakovic is 101-105 over three seasons with the Raptors.<\/p>\n

Rajakovic was hired by the Raptors<\/a> a little more than three years ago, replacing Nick Nurse after he was fired. He is the second Serbian-born coach in the NBA, following former Phoenix Suns coach Igor Kokosov.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Serbia, Rajakovic has been involved in coaching since his teens. He coached in Spain before coming to the United States.<\/p>\n

He was a head coach for two seasons in the G League before becoming an assistant with the Oklahoma City Thunder during 2014-15 season. <\/p>\n

Rajakovic spent the 2019-20 season as an assistant with Phoenix and joined the Memphis Grizzlies the following year for a three-season stint before Toronto gave him a chance to lead an NBA team.<\/p>\n

He coached the international team at the All-Star Game as part of the NBA\u2019s new U.S. vs. The World format<\/a> earlier this year<\/p>\n

Toronto acquired Leonard in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers, a person with knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Raptors are dealing Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round draft picks, two second-round picks and pick swap to the Clippers for Leonard, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade has not received the required league approval.<\/p>\n

Leonard spent one season in Toronto, and that was the year the Raptors won their only championship. The 35-year-old Leonard scored a career-high 27.9 points in 65 games last season. He is a seven-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, a two-time NBA champion, who also won a title in 2014 with San Antonio, and is an asset on defense.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 The Toronto Raptors have agreed to a multiyear contract extension with coach Darko Rajakovic, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[107827,14832,318000,114337,318001,11653,355,1063,113152,6415,3662,99,24324,2970],"class_list":["post-739593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-brandon-ingram","tag-compensation-in-sports","tag-darko-rajakovic","tag-gradey-dick","tag-igor-kokosov","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nick-nurse","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-sports-transactions","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}