Darko Rajaković on the Knicks: ‘We don’t care about them,’ and the neighbor who keeps him posted on the Raptors buzz

Darko Rajaković does not like talking about expectations. On Tuesday, the day before the Toronto Raptors open their season, he was asked twice about other people’s, and he answered both times.

The first question was what the Raptors could take from the New York Knicks, the champions, who were raising their banner at Madison Square Garden that night. Rajaković did not let it get far. “What team? New York Knicks? We don’t compare ourselves, we don’t care about them,” he said after practice at OVO Athletic Centre. “I’m not comparing. I’m not looking at them. I’m not looking at other teams. We have our own story. We have our own identity that we want to develop and that we believe is going to take us to championships.”

“I don’t know what worked for them, didn’t work for them,” he added. “It’s not really mine to address that.”

"What team? New York Knicks? We don't compare ourselves––we don't care about them"

–– Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic pic.twitter.com/MbpojeegQ7

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) October 20, 2026

‘A really good thermometer’

The second question was softer: did he feel the excitement around the team in the city? Rajaković said he did, and that he has a neighbor who makes sure of it. “He’s a pain in the ass every day,” he said. “Every day he’s asking me about the team and guys and the buzz in the city. He’s a really good thermometer for me for what’s going on in the city.”

“We absolutely love what’s going on,” Rajaković said. “It’s awesome to see that the city has a buzz about the team, it has excitement about the team. Everybody is looking forward to see what this team can do and how this team is going to perform. That’s why we work. That’s why we put a lot of work in. That’s why we built this team, so we can go out there and have a team that can answer the questions every single night.”

Darko Rajaković on if he senses the buzz going around the city for the Raptors this coming season:

“Absolutely. I have a neighbour, Stuart. He’s a pain in the ass every day. Every day he’s asking me about the team and guys and the buzz in the city. He’s a really good thermometer… pic.twitter.com/0cBZrLjUdT

— Omer Osman (@OmerOsman200) October 20, 2026

The buzz comes from the summer trade that brought Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto, with Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and picks going to the Los Angeles Clippers, and from last spring’s first-round series, when the Raptors took the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games with Ingram and Immanuel Quickley missing time. Toronto went 46-36 last season. Leonard, now 35, has kept his own expectations low, saying on Monday that the team will know more “once 20 games, 25 games are under our belts.”

Barnes’ message in the team meeting

Rajaković said the team held a meeting on Tuesday about the start of the season, and that Scottie Barnes spoke to the group about staying in the present. “Let’s take care of today, you know? That’s our mindset, so we’re going to take it one game at a time,” Rajaković said. “We’re going to prepare one game at a time. We’re going to compete one possession at a time, and the culmination and sum of all of that is going to be what we’re gonna achieve as a team this year.”

“We cannot go far ahead and project what’s going to happen,” he said. “We don’t know what other teams are going to do. We don’t know the state of the injuries on our team or on other teams.”

More pressure, not less

What he does know is how he wants the Raptors to defend. Toronto led the league last season in how often it played high ball pressure, and Rajaković told Samson Folk this week that there is no going back from it. “We gotta do it more. There’s no way back,” he said. “I think the whole league is going that direction. I’m watching other teams around the league and in the preseason there is much more full court pressure. There is much more on-ball aggressiveness, and that’s a staple of our defense. We gotta really dominate in that area and we gotta take it to another level.”

He also named the weak spot. “We gotta be able to rebound the ball really well,” he said. “That’s a huge point of emphasis for us, to improve in that regard.” Barnes said the pressure has to get smarter, too, with fewer gambles that give opponents easy baskets.

Leonard, Barnes, RJ Barrett, Quickley and Jakob Poeltl are expected to start, with Collin Murray-Boyles, Jamal Shead and Ja’Kobe Walter leading the bench. The Raptors host the Chicago Bulls at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET, which is 2:30 a.m. Thursday in Cairo.