Jerry Stackhouse Has Made His Mark as a Head Coach with D-League's Raptors 905

As Raptors 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse stepped out of the locker room to walk to his postgame scrum, he was met by a camera. The camera followed his short walk through the Hershey Centre hallway—where the 905 play in Mississauga, Ontario—and as Stackhouse reached the assembled media, he was met by a few more cameras. Were this the NBA, this would not at all be surprising. Here in the D-League, though, following an inconsequential, late regular-season game, these are not cameras from ESPN or TNT.

Throughout Stackhouse's career, he's been compiling footage of his journey, first as a player and now as a freshman bench boss. It's a smart bit of forward-thinking self-marketing, something that began in a post-home movie era and has stretched into a record-everything-just-in-case present. At some point in the future, the footage pieced together over an illustrious playing career and fledgling coaching expedition will make for intriguing viewing, a story decidedly worth telling and hearing.

The ratcheted-up camera presence on this random Thursday is born of necessity. By cause of his own rookie success, Stackhouse's story is wilfully being plucked from his hands and is beginning to be told on a much more prominent scale, a long-term storyboard facing expediting because the third-act resolution—Stackhouse landing an NBA head coaching gig—is breathing down the protagonist's neck.

On Wednesday night, the 905 open up a first-round playoff series against the Canton Charge. The 905 making the playoffs in just their second year of existence always seemed plausible given the year-to-year variance in the D-League, but the team was entering the year with almost an entirely new roster and a head coach without experience making the calls above the AAU level.

The 905 are extremely talented on paper, which gives them a nice leg up. Axel Toupane has earned call-ups in back-to-back seasons. Edy Tavares was cut late in camp by the Atlanta Hawks and may have developed into the best big in the D-League. Brady Heslip is the best shooter in the world not on an NBA roster. The 905 have gotten 64 games from six players on assignment from their parent club, the Toronto Raptors.

Still, the job Stackhouse and his staff have done in short order in Mississauga is nothing short of remarkable. The 905 weren't just good this season, and they didn't just make the playoffs. With a 39-11 record, they posted the second-best season in the history of the D-League. They also owned the best road record in league history at 21-4. They finished first in net rating by a significant margin, missing owning the league's best defense by a hair and also posting the fifth-best offensive efficiency. They move the ball exceptionally well (third in assist percentage), opening things up for their array of shooters, and no team grabbed a larger share of rebounds this season. Stackhouse's rotations and shot distribution are democratic, often going nine- or 10-deep on a given night—at one point, the 905 were in first place and didn't have a single player in the top 40 in scoring—and players have bought in hard to that selfless approach, however difficult that may be when each individual has larger personal goals at hand.

The 905 have done all of this despite the complications in continuity that can come with short-notice, short-term assignments, with Jarrod Uthoff being traded mid-season, with Toupane briefly joining the Milwaukee Bucks, and, down the stretch, without Will Sheehey—one of the team's two-way stalwarts lost to injury. They are, entering a short, unique playoff bracket—three best-of-three series where the home team plays Game 1 on the road and Games 2 and 3 at home—as the likely favorite to win the championship.

The success so far has shone a bright light on Stackhouse in recent weeks. His decision to coach at the D-League level was an interesting one that drew initial interest, but as the NBA picked up, it was a storyline most deemed worthy of only occasionally checking in on. That's changed as the season has rolled along, and as it's become clear that Stackhouse isn't just a great quote in a flashy suit trying to stay around the game.

He's a legitimate NBA coaching prospect.

In his annual list of coaching prospects to watch, ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz mentioned Stackhouse second, pointing out that league sources are taking notice of the drive, willingness to learn, and respect from players that the two-time All-Star is displaying. He's still somewhat raw in terms of overall experience, but the late stages of his career saw him take on a mentorship role, he's run an AAU program (even doing the laundry himself, he's quick to remember), he's coached with the USA Select program, and now he could be on his way to a D-League title in his inaugural season as a bench boss. He may not be a fit on a more polished, veteran-laden NBA team just yet, but his résumé is being built quite nicely for a position with a young, up-and-coming roster.

Stackhouse has said in the past that seeing Jason Kidd move immediately to a position behind the bench made him think he could do the same. His path so far has been a bit more methodical, likely for the best, and it may not end up delaying his ascent to the NBA coaching ranks all that long. As Stackhouse continues to try to document his own story, a potential Raptors 905 championship stands to push it to its next logical step faster than anyone expected.