Chris Boucher is entering his seventh season with the Raptors at age 32, and his long tenure with the team is a testament to his skill and professionalism. He entered his stint with the Raptors on an Exhibit 10 deal, battling it out for a two-way. He was with Toronto for their 2019 championship and has since fluctuated between being a sixth man, key rotation piece and veteran mentor.
However, his 14.1 minutes per game last season were his lowest since the 2019/20 season. He received 15 coach’s decision DNPs and wasn’t happy about the lack of minutes, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.
“When you’ve got a career or you played a lot of years, you get kind of lost in how many minutes you’re playing and all and you forget about a lot of little things,” Boucher said. “I did a lot of that in the summer, work on that just to make sure my mind’s at the right place to start the year.”
However, Grange emphasizes that Boucher’s relationship with coach Darko Rajakovic is in a good place, despite the lack of minutes.
“Coach is doing a really good job to teach me the game and make me a better leader, a better vet,” Boucher said. “I think that’s something I needed a lot to work on and this summer, I took a lot of time for that.”
We have more from the Raptors:
- RJ Barrett‘s transition to the Raptors last season after being acquired in exchange for OG Anunoby went about as well as it could have. He averaged 21.8 pointsm 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 55.3% from the field, all of which would have been career highs over the course of a full season. Despite his impressive offensive season, Barrett recognizes he has a ways to go on the defensive side of the ball, Grange writes in another piece. “If you want to win, it starts with defense,” Barrett said. “And I’ve been practicing it, working on it, especially during the summertime,” Barrett said. “That was huge for me to just get reps defensively, and now just keep working on it. Every day, you know, coaching, drills, playing, keep that mindset of defending and keep going that way.“
- Immanuel Quickley has been spotted sporting a brace on his wrist after practice. According to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet, this is mostly precautionary after Quickley suffered a sprained thumb at a workout leading up to training camp. He has been participating in non-contact portions of training camp and is not expected to miss any time in the regular season due to the injury.
- Second-year wing Gradey Dick looks to have bulked up this offseason, Murphy notes in the same piece. Adding strength was a part of Dick’s offseason planning and officially, he’s eight pounds heavier than he was last year. Dick was 205 pounds last year at 6’6″ and averaged 8.5 points while shooting 36.5% from three.