Darko Rajaković (Serbian Cyrillic: Дарко Рајаковић; born 22 February 1979) is a Serbian basketball coach, currently working as an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
| Memphis Grizzlies | |
|---|---|
| Position | Assistant coach |
| League | NBA |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1979-02-22) 22 February 1979 (age 43) Čačak, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Coaching career | 1996–present |
| Career history | |
| As coach: | |
| 1996–1999 | Borac Čačak (youth) |
| 1999–2007 | Crvena zvezda (youth) |
| 2009–2012 | Espacio Torrelodones |
| 2012–2014 | Tulsa 66ers |
| 2014–2019 | Oklahoma City Thunder (assistant) |
| 2019–2020 | Phoenix Suns (assistant) |
| 2020–present | Memphis Grizzlies (assistant) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
As assistant coach:
| |
Rajaković was the head coach of the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA G League for two seasons and the first head coach in NBA G League history born outside of North America.[1]
Rajaković earned his degree in basketball coaching from the Belgrade Basketball Academy in 2004[2] and earned his degree in sports management from Alfa BK University in 2006.
Rajaković began his coaching career at 16 years old with Borac Čačak in Čačak, Serbia.[3] Following his three-year stint in Čačak, Rajaković was named the head coach for the Crvena zvezda youth system in Belgrade.[4] During his eight years in Belgrade, Rajaković led Crvena zvezda to two Serbian Youth championships.[5] To increase his basketball coaching acumen and knowledge, Rajakovic spent time with Lute Olson at the University of Arizona (2003) and Mike Krzyzewski at the Duke University (2007) and attended team practices and meetings at both universities.[6][7]
From 2004 to 2011, Rajaković served as a scouting consultant and NBA Summer League assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.[6]
In 2009, Rajaković become the head coach of Espacio Torrelodones of the Spanish EBA League (4th-tier). Rajaković excelled in both recruiting and developing players. In his first season, Rajaković led the Torrelodones to the Primera Division – Community of Madrid Group (5th-tier) title, promoting the team to the Liga EBA.[5] In the 2010–11 Liga EBA season, the Torrelodones finished 7th in Group B with a 16–14 record. In the next season and his last as their coach, the Torrelodones finished 8th in Group B with the same record as for season before.
In 2012, Rajaković became the head coach of the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League. Rajaković led Tulsa to a combined 51-49 record over two seasons, including a 27-23 record and NBA D-League Semifinals appearance in 2012–13. During his time with the 66ers, Tulsa was assigned seven players from Oklahoma City a total of 50 times (the most in the league during that stretch), including Oklahoma City players such as Reggie Jackson, Perry Jones, Jeremy Lamb and André Roberson. Rajaković witnessed five of his Tulsa players receive call-ups to the NBA, including four to the Oklahoma City (Grant Jerrett, Daniel Orton, Mustafa Shakur and Reggie Williams). He coached 11 Tulsa players over the two years who were on an NBA roster in the 2013–14 season.[5]
On 5 July 2014, Rajaković was named assistant coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder.[1] During his time with the Thunder, Rajaković has helped develop many players, including Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, Terrance Ferguson, Victor Oladipo, Dennis Schröder, and Alex Abrines.[8][9][10] Rajaković served as the Thunder’s head coach at NBA Summer League in 2014 and 2015. He was on the Western Conference All-Star Team coaching staff in 2014.[6] Rajaković helped lead the Thunder to the playoffs four consecutive seasons (2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019), making it to the 2016 NBA Western Conference Finals.
On June 26, 2019, Rajaković was hired as an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns.[11]
On September 13, 2020, Rajaković was hired as an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies.[12] On January 11, 2022, Rajaković as the interim head coach led the Grizzlies to a 116–108 win over the Golden State Warriors.[13] It was his head coaching debut in NBA.[14] After his fellow Serbian countryman Igor Kokoškov, he is the second European who led an NBA team in a regular season game.[15][16] Rajaković finished his stint as the interim head coach with a 4–1 record.
On July 18, 2019, Rajaković was hired as an assistant coach for the Serbia men's national basketball team under Aleksandar Đorđević.[17] He made a debut at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup where Serbia won the fifth place.
| Regular season | G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L % | Win–loss % |
| Playoffs | PG | Playoff games | PW | Playoff wins | PL | Playoff losses | PW–L % | Playoff win–loss % |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulsa | 2012–13 | 50 | 27 | 23 | .540 | 3rd in Central | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 | Lost Semifinals |
| Tulsa | 2013–14 | 50 | 24 | 26 | .480 | 5th in Central | – | Missed Playoffs | |||
| Career | 100 | 51 | 49 | .510 | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 |
Memphis Grizzlies roster | |
|---|---|