The Boucher Barrage was real, now it's time for these two Raptors vets to show out

The Boucher Barrage. Has a cool ring to it, right?

And that name was certainly given for good reason. For a brief stretch of games, Chris Boucher's game exploded from out of nowhere, and he was playing his (you know what) off. Random spurts of relevancy like this, especially for a crafty vet, deserve that type of respect to remind folks of his ability to be the quintessential hustle and glue guy.

Boucher reportedly caught the attention of several rival franchises, with the most prominent name circulating in the rumor mill being the Denver Nuggets, who are interested in his services after doing more than enough to prove he's got a lot left in the tank.

Could the Toronto Raptors get a small glimpse of this Cinderella-like veteran run out of their two other rumored trade block old-timers, Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown? Well, at least, that's the hope.

Will the real Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown please stand up?

The Raptors' most recent clash on January 17 against the Milwaukee Bucks showed some promise, although Toronto wasn't able to secure a victory, losing with a final score of 112-130. In the loss, the vets Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown graced the court for extended minutes, providing fairly strong box score stats, albeit the team's overall faltering performance and their individually poor plus/minus.

That's pretty much expected, especially when it appeared Milwaukee had Toronto's number as the game played out. However, it's extremely important to put out what's essentially metaphorical classified ads on these veterans, all but certain to hit the trade market.

They can't be exactly like Chris Boucher, able to just pop off in a limited role, but if the rotation strategy sees fit in the meantime, why not just give these guys ample time to prove their worth by showing out? Thankfully for Toronto, playing Olynyk and Brown close to 20 minutes each paid off in their performances.

Olynyk would score 15 points, secure four rebounds, provide two assists, and make one steal on 71.4% field goal shooting in just over 19 minutes of action. Meanwhile, Brown scored 17 points and secured six rebounds on 54.5% field goal shooting in just over 20 minutes of run.

That's precisely the ideal production needed to grab the attention of rival franchises, akin to Chris Boucher. Now, it can't be expected that Olynyk and Brown can keep up that level of play on a night-to-night basis until they ultimately suit up for a different team; but Boucher should have set the catalyst for them to succeed.

As far as things go moving forward, if they can just maintain a consistent role for the time being, the cards have been set out in their favor to be worthwhile candidates on the trade block. But if not, they run the risk of just collecting dust on the bench and fading into mediocrity. That is not the best way to maximize their careers, nor does it do any favors for the Raptors' leverage in a trade.

So here's to Toronto's own Mr. K.O. and the cowboy, B.B.

The pressure is on to show out, no matter what it takes.