Chris Boucher rips Shaq, Charles Barkley over Raptors analysis

Chris Boucher and the Toronto Raptors gave it everything they had against Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers. Unfortunately, the team’s lack of amazing depth returned to bite them at the most inopportune times. The Raptors gave Philadelphia more problems than Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley gave them credit for.

O’Neal was quick to proclaim that the Raptors were going to get swept before the series even started. While they proved that prediction wrong by rallying to secure two wins, the pessimistic Raptors takes continued. After the season ended, Barkley took some shots at them.

Barkley said that Toronto is “just good enough to make the playoffs” while O’Neal said that the roster didn’t have any stars. Watching this team play this year shows that both of those statements are categorically false. Boucher took them both to tasks over these takes.

On Boucher’s “Hustle Play” podcast, he took aim at Barkley and O’Neal tearing the Raptors down with what he believes is an uninformed opinion. With how Toronto snuck up on the larger basketball media landscape, Boucher thinks that neither O’Neal nor Barkley saw enough Raptors games.

“You don’t watch us,” Boucher said to O’Neal and Barkley. “When you say, oh, the Raptors are in the playoffs? OK, let me go watch a couple of games, see how they play, and start talking. Watch us. And then you could talk how much you want.” It seems like Boucher won’t be on Inside the NBA anytime soon.

Chris Boucher went after Raptors haters Shaq and Chuck.

If you watched Toronto for 82 games this season and concluded that Pascal Siakam is not a star, I don’t know what to tell you. An All-NBA appearance is not out of the cards for him just yet.

Being the only Canadian team in the league, it can be like pulling teeth to get some of the more vocal basketball opinionists in the media landscape to wake up and pay attention to this year. Even though the Raptors exceeded all expectations and were led by the Rookie of the Year, they have managed to be underrated once again.

Boucher knows that looking at box score stats is not an accurate way to judge how good this Toronto team is. Now that the club is on more stable ground, the Inside guys might watch a few more games and familiarize themselves with what Nick Nurse is cooking over there.