The Toronto Raptors weren’t exactly expected to sweep the awards this season due to their poor record, but Chris Boucher could’ve at least given the raptors a puncher’s chance at taking home the Sixth Man of the Year award.
Boucher, who has improved dramatically since arriving in Toronto following some G League stints, averaged 13.6 points per game on 51% shooting from the field and 38% from 3-point range. With nearly two blocks per game, he is also one of the best defensive bench players in the game.
Some of the NBA Awards finalists were revealed over the last few days, and Boucher was shut out from consideration along with everyone else on this team. Unlike some of his teammates, Boucher was willing to let his feelings be known.
When the NBA announced that New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose and a pair of Utah Jazz sharpshooters in Jordan Clarkson and Joe Ingles. Boucher was not named, and he decided to make his frustrations known in emoji form, as the disappointed face emoji perfectly encapsulates the feelings of most Raptors fans.
Did Chris Boucher get snubbed for Sixth Man of the Year?
You will get no argument from us or anyone over five years of age when it comes to Clarkson, the prohibitive favorite to win the award and a key factor in Utah’s rise to the top of the West. Rose has outscored Boucher and been an immense help for the Knicks, so he is also worthy of inclusion in the Top 3. Ingles, however, deserves some questioning.
The admission of Clarkson means that Ingles isn’t even the best bench player on his own team. Boucher not only outscored Ingles, but he gathered more rebounds and blocked more shots, all the while doing so with less support around him. Boucher knows the voters did him dirty here.
Obviously, the voters are holding Toronto’s poor record against Boucher. “How could he be Sixth Man of the Year,” they seem to say. “His team might get the No. 1 pick!” Looking deeper than raw numbers shows that Boucher’s production came amid some nigh impossible circumstances, and the voters didn’t take that into account.
Boucher was the Raptors’ only hope at winning an award this season, and his bid for the 6MOTY crown has fallen by the wayside. The only way for Boucher to exact revenge is to put out an equally deserving campaign in 2020-21.