Connection between Schroder, Rajakovic should go a long way for Raptors

TORONTO – Not long after the Raptors put the finishing touches on their opening-night win over Minnesota, a loud roar emanated from the team’s locker room.

Open Gym – the long-running team produced documentary series – was on the scene to capture the moment as the club celebrated Darko Rajakovic’s first career victory. Players dumped water bottles on the rookie head coach, followed by an entire bucket of ice water, before presenting him with the game ball.

Given everything that went wrong in Toronto last season, it had been a while since that room was filled with such joy and spirit.

“It was wild,” Pascal Siakam said afterward.

At the centre of it all was Dennis Schroder, the veteran point guard who also made his Raptors debut on Wednesday. He was the first to embrace a drenched and shivering Rajakovic.

The 44-year-old coach had spent the hours leading up to his first game at the helm of an NBA team trying his best to stay grounded and downplay its importance. “I don’t have time to process what it really means,” he told reporters on the eve of the season opener. But, more than anybody else on the roster, Schroder could appreciate what that night meant.

“It was a special moment for him and a great experience for all of us in the locker room,” Schroder said after his new club pulled out a gritty 97-94 win over the Timberwolves.

As happy as everyone in that room was for Rajakovic – it doesn’t take long to connect with the affable Serbian – most of his players only met him for the first time over the summer, shortly after he was hired to replace the dismissed Nick Nurse. Schroder is the lone exception, having played for Rajakovic when he was an assistant coach in Oklahoma City.

Rajakovic started his coaching career as a teenager in Serbia. He coached in Spain and worked as a consultant for the San Antonio Spurs before landing a job with the Thunder’s G League affiliate in Tulsa, and eventually the NBA club itself. He had already been on the Thunder’s staff for four seasons when Schroder was traded there from Atlanta ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.

A native of Germany, Schroder was 24 at the time and had spent his first five NBA seasons with the Hawks. He recalls Rajakovic being the first to reach out and take him and his wife to dinner. They got to know each other, connected over their European backgrounds, and their families became close during that lone season together in OKC.

“That means a lot to me,” Schroder said earlier this week. “I think that’s probably where the connection started.”

Their careers took them in different directions from there. Rajakovic followed Monty Williams to Phoenix before joining Taylor Jenkins’ staff in Memphis. Meanwhile, after turning in two of his best and most efficient seasons as a member of the Thunder, primarily as a reserve, Schroder played for three different teams in three years, including a couple stints with the Lakers.

Whenever their teams would face each other, the two would chat before or after the game. Rajakovic was surprised to see Schroder bounce from team to team, contract to contract and role to role. Even though Schroder’s been in the league for a decade and just turned 30 last month, Rajakovic has always believed that his best is yet to come – he just needed to find a home and get a full-time opportunity to run an offence.

His message, whenever they crossed paths, was: “You should have your own team.”

So, when Rajakovic got the Raptors’ job and Fred VanVleet left for Houston, the opportunity in Toronto was too good to pass up. Schroder signed a two-year, $25.4 million deal, and while his familiarity with the new head coach may have been the biggest factor in his decision, the team’s vacant starting point guard gig was a close second.

With VanVleet gone, some wondered whether they might opt to move Scottie Barnes to the point and start Gary Trent Jr. to give that first unit some much-needed floor spacing, but that never seemed to be on the table for Rajakovic. From the first days of training camp last month, Schroder was running with the starters in practice. It was always going to be his job.

“He’s an experienced point guard,” Rajakovic said. “We’re a new team, new terminology, new coaching staff. There’s so much new with our team and having somebody who’s been through different teams in that role of a point guard brings a calmness.”

Schroder has proven that he can be an effective lead guard, most recently at this summer’s FIBA World Cup, where he won MVP and led Germany to a gold-medal finish. Expecting him to step in for VanVleet, a former all-star and franchise icon, and be a one-for-one replacement isn’t fair. But put it this way: Schroder will make less than a third of VanVleet’s salary this season and surely make up for more than a third of his production.

Initially, it seemed like a strange fit, being that the Raptors’ biggest need at the position was shooting and Schroder is a good-not-great 34 per cent career three-point shooter. But as he showed in his debut on Wednesday, he brings several other attributes that fit the style Rajakovic wants to play on both ends of the floor.

For one, he’s an active, high-IQ defender. On Toronto’s first defensive possession of the game, Schroder picked Mike Conley up full court, pressured him at the logo, and forced a turnover – not with a steal, technically, but on a deflection, which is something Rajakovic has been preaching.

He’s as quick and dynamic off the dribble as just about any other guard in basketball. The Raptors outscored Minnesota 34-12 in transition, helping to make up for some clunky half-court offence. Schroder scored eight of those fast-break points and assisted on another four.

He’s also been working on his jumper, which bore fruit on Wednesday. He hit four of eight three-point attempts, including a big go-ahead bucket midway through the fourth quarter of a tight and low-scoring contest. His 22 points were the most by a player in his Raptors debut since Kawhi Leonard scored 24 in 2018, and he also recorded a team-high seven assists.

For Rajakovic to successfully implement his new system – and Wednesday was a promising start in that regard – his connection with Schroder is going to be crucial. The point guard is considered to be an extension of the head coach on the floor. For instance, Nurse always seemed to have the respect of VanVleet, and Kyle Lowry before him. Even with a portion of the locker room seemingly starting to tune him out late last season, the sense was that Nurse and VanVleet generally remained on the same page.

Schroder isn’t the same kind of leader as VanVleet; he’s not quite as vocal. But even after a few weeks of camp, it’s clear that he’s embraced his role as the floor general and steadying hand with the starters and he’s taken ownership of it. He understands Rajakovic’s vision and he’s relaying his message.

“The relationship with me and Darko is great, and it’s honest,” Schroder said. “Whenever he’s got something to say he tells me, and I’ve got the same thing for him. And I think that’s what we’ve gotta do as a team, as well. When you put your egos to the side – and that’s what we did this summer with the national team – and it’s all about winning, then you can get into arguments and move on from it and get better. I think we’re moving in that direction with this team.”

“I’m just glad that [Rajakovic trusts me to run the team]. I’ve been working hard for it, and I just try to play as great as I can for him, for the organization and for my teammates.