Raptors 905 set coaching staff for 2024-2025 season
Summer has come and gone and while football is dominating the headlines for now, it means that basketball isn’t far to come.
With hoops inching closer and closer, the Mississauga squad has announced the coaching staff that will lead the charge for the open tryouts at the OVO Athletic Centre on Sept. 21st, through the G League draft on Oct. 26, training camp beginning on Oct. 28, and throughout the entire regular season starting on Nov. 9th.
The biggest change heading into the 2024-2025 season occurred right at the top, as Eric Khoury is out and Drew Jones is in as the Raptors 905 head coach.
Jones, the sixth head coach in franchise history, gets his first professional head coaching opportunity after joining the Raptors organization last season on Darko Rajakovic’s staff.
Before the Raptors, the 37-year-old was an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons (2021-2023) and the Philadelphia 76ers (2019-2021) as a player development coach. Jones began his professional coaching career with the Oklahoma City Thunder and their G League affiliate the Oklahoma City Blue, spending nearly five years as a video analyst, player development coach and an assistant coach with the Blue.
The youngest coach in 905 history, Khoury, has moved up to Rajakovic’s staff with the big club, after going 40-60 as top dog over the past two seasons, including going 17-33 in an injury-riddled 2023-2024 campaign.
Assistant coaches Justin Serresse, Arsalan Jamil, Matt Gray, Josh Henderson, and Brandon Leftwich fill out the rest of Jones’ staff.
The newest member of the personnel is Serresse who joins the 905 after serving as head coach and manager of men’s basketball operations at Wilfrid Laurier University for the last seven years. His Golden Hawks posted an 88-62 record over that span after spending the five years prior as the lead assistant with the Ottawa Gee-Gees, capturing three U Sports medals and four OUA medals.
Serresse was also an assistant coach for Canada at the FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup in 2021 and 2023, as well as the FIBA U18 Men’s Americas Championship in 2022.
Arsalan Jamil returns for his seventh season on the 905 bench as the longest-tenured coach on the staff, while Mississauga, Ont., native Matt Gray comes back for his third season after spending three years in the NCAA ranks (Baylor and Boston College.
Rounding out the group is Josh Henderson and Brandon Leftwich who are both back for their second seasons respectively.
Before coming to Mississauga a year ago, Henderson spent the previous four years (2019-2023) with the Memphis Grizzlies as a player development coach, while Leftwich spent a year with the Wisconsin Herd in the G League also as a development coach before joining the 905.
After a 2023-2024 G League season that saw a ton of injuries and a ton of losses, the 905 did their job and got their players to the show, matching a franchise-high five NBA call-ups throughout last season (Justise Winslow, Javon Freeman-Liberty, Kobi Simmons, Mo Gueye, Jontay Porter).
With the new man Jones at the helm, a mostly intact returning staff around him, and an influx of young talent coming into the minor league squad, expectations may be high as the 905 will try to get back to the playoffs for the first time in two years, and win a championship since they last did so in 2018.
The post Raptors 905 set coaching staff for 2024-2025 season first appeared on Raptors Republic.