With a new fully guaranteed three-year, $35MM contract in hand, Raptors big man Chris Boucher admitted to reporters on Thursday that he wasn’t expecting his free agency to play out this way last fall when he got off to an extremely slow start to the season, averaging 5.9 PPG on .381/.196/.667 shooting in his first 20 games.
“(After) the first 20 games? No, there’s no way,” Boucher said, per Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. “I mean, to be honest with you, me and (trainer) Ibrahim (Appiah) joke about that all the time. We were saying, ‘We’re probably gonna have to pack our bags and stuff’ because it didn’t look too nice at the beginning and to be honest with you … I was like, ‘I’m not playing well. I might not get traded but I might get waived or whatever,’ so that’s how we were taking it.”
After bouncing back and finishing the season strong, Boucher received offers from other teams during his first foray into unrestricted free agency. The Celtics, Bucks, Nets, and Bulls were reportedly among the clubs to express interest. But Boucher suggested on Thursday that he never seriously considered leaving Toronto.
“Hearing from other teams … was a good thing for me,” Boucher said. “But like I said, it doesn’t stop there. You know, I wanted to be comfortable, you play your best basketball when you feel like you’re at home, when you feel like you know everything, and things are going smooth and so I don’t think I would have felt that more appreciated or felt like home anywhere else.”
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- Eric Koreen and Alex Schiffer of The Athletic, representing the Raptors’ and Nets‘ front offices, engaged in mock trade negotiations on a potential Kevin Durant trade, as Koreen explores whether there’s a way to get Durant to Toronto in a deal that meets Brooklyn’s asking price without including Scottie Barnes. Schiffer is amenable to a hypothetical package of Pascal Siakam, Gary Trent, Precious Achiuwa, three unprotected first-rounders, and a pick swap in exchange for Durant and Seth Curry.
- Veteran player development coach Rico Hines has left the Kings to join the Raptors, as Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee writes. Hines confirmed the move in an Instagram post after previously bidding farewell to Kings fans in another post on Instagram. Hines spent the last three seasons working under Luke Walton and Alvin Gentry in Sacramento.
- The Raptors have a strong track record of exceeding expectations and making good year-over-year progress, but that forward progress is never guaranteed, according to Dave Feschuk of The Toronto Star, who weighs whether it makes sense for the team to simply count on internal improvement from the current core and considers the risks of that approach.
Lol that’s the exact trade framework I was saying, except i mentioned multiple swaps. ..
How reliable is the results of a mock trade negotiation when none of the players involved are in either front office? It’s cute, it’s fun, it fills space on websites, it’s ultimately meaningless.
No one knows how much the Nets values any of those players. No one knows how much the Raptors values any of those players. trade rumors are cool and fun to talk about, but actual mock negotiations kind of crosses that line into too weird.
That reports nets trade is garbage
They’re giving up so much, I wouldn’t do that deal. I’d do it, if Precious and Curry were dropped.
Koreen suggests is great, not by the Raps the Siakam + Trent Jr +3FRP for Durant + Curry.
If no!
Than trade for Poetl by utilizing the back 6-11 players
Again, Curry is there to match salaries, and to replace the catch and shooting of Trent…
Now that the Raptors have added HINES to their coaching ranks, they remain hopeful to also add DUNCAN to pair up with HINES. Odds are that will be as easy as baking a cake.
Ban this guy
I doubt Durant is going anywhere.
Some team will come to its senses regarding the Irving rental. It does take about $30mil for matching tho, or a lot of capspace.
A big fan of Boucher, I thought all along he’d stay in Toronto. Home is home, and why knock happiness? But importantly, the Raptors have integrated Boucher’s unique skillset into their system quite deeply, and I think it shows great self awareness on Boucher’s part that Toronto is fir this reason the strongest and safest place for him to thrive and develop. Love his aggressive turn toward hussle plays and rebounds this season!