TORONTO — Darko Rajakovic named his full coaching staff for the 2026-27 Toronto Raptors season on Wednesday, with Stephen Silas, a 25-year NBA veteran who coached USA Basketball’s national program through an international bronze-medal run, joining the front bench alongside assistants Pat Delany and Jama Mahlalela.
The announcement came one day after the NBA formally approved Kawhi Leonard’s trade from the Los Angeles Clippers, closing the months-long cap circumvention investigation that had frozen the deal since June. Rajakovic now has his full staff assembled ahead of the most anticipated Raptors season since Leonard himself chose not to come back the first time.
Silas, 53, did not follow a conventional path to this room. He served as head coach of the Houston Rockets from 2020 to 2023, compiling a 59-177 record through the deliberate suffering of a full rebuild. That record is the kind of line a lesser organization would hold against a coach. Rajakovic’s front office saw something else: a man who accepted the hardest assignment in the league, developed young players through losing, and then stepped back into a supporting role with the Detroit Pistons, choosing collaboration over self-interest at a stage when he could have held out for another head-coaching opportunity.
His most recent role was with USA Basketball, where he coached the national program through the 2025 and 2027 FIBA AmeriCup windows, posting an 11-3 record and earning a bronze medal in the tournament that concluded last August. International basketball demands different skills than the NBA’s half-court grind: roster assembly on short timelines, player management under compressed intensity, preparation against systems far different from what league teams run. Silas navigated all of it.
“Coaches who have run their own programs and then chosen to return to a supporting role bring something specific into the building,” one front office evaluator told reporters when Silas’s hiring was first reported this summer. “The ego question is already resolved. What’s left is pure preparation.”
That preparation goes into a staff already built around strong individuals. Mahlalela, who has been with the Raptors organization through multiple coaching regimes, is one of the more respected defensive minds working on an NBA bench. Delany’s partnership with Rajakovic has been the foundational continuity of Toronto’s current era. The front bench is now its most complete form, with Silas adding experience that neither Mahlalela nor Delany carries: the particular knowledge of having been the person everyone else in the building answers to.
The full staff extends considerably further. Matt Vest has been elevated to assistant coach after years in a developmental role. Jeremy Castleberry returns to the organization. Ivo Simović, Vin Bhavnani, Eric Khoury, Jim Sann and Mery Andrade round out the coaching group. The video and player development unit, built around Ike Azotam and Kareem Elliott, adds three new voices: Stephane Ingo, Isiah Price and Aidan Wilson.
Andrade’s inclusion is not insignificant. Women coaching in the NBA at any level remain a small cohort, and her presence on a staff finalized for a high-profile season with a Hall of Fame player returning reflects an organizational culture that selects on merit rather than convention.
Scottie Barnes, 24, will play alongside Leonard in a pairing Toronto’s front office has framed as the foundation of the franchise’s next championship attempt. The coaching staff surrounding them matters not just for game-night decisions, but for the daily development work that determines whether Barnes reaches his ceiling and whether Leonard, who has played 65 games or more only three times in eleven NBA seasons, stays healthy through April.
The specific role Silas will play within Rajakovic’s structure has not been publicly detailed. Whether he anchors the defensive preparation, leads individual work with Leonard, or serves as a strategic sounding board on offensive coverages, those are determinations that will emerge through training camp rather than press releases. NBA.com published the full staff listing Wednesday morning.
Leonard’s preseason return to Canada, including a historic game in Quebec City last weekend, already signaled that the city is ready to move forward. CTV News reported on the announcement Wednesday as the Raptors finalized preparations for an October 3 preseason opener. The coaching staff named that day is the infrastructure surrounding what Toronto has spent seven years waiting to rebuild.
