After a stellar rookie season, expectations for Collin Murray-Boyles’s second season with the Raptors are high. The pressure is, too. The Raptors will rely on him to be their sixth man and lead a young bench unit with third-year players Jamal Shead and Ja’Kobe Walter next in line for big minutes.
That new role could give Murray-Boyles a shot at breaking into the Sixth Man of the Year conversation, especially if the Raptors land Kawhi Leonard and make some serious noise in the Eastern Conference.
ESPN listed Alex Caruso, Dylan Harper, Ajay Mitchell, and Reed Sheppard as the top candidates for the award in its NBA Summer Forecast, but there’s plenty of time to change that.
What would have to happen for Collin Murray-Boyles to enter the Sixth Man of the Year conversation?
First of all, the Raptors would have to win a lot. Individual bench production matters little if it doesn’t lead to team success. The last five winners—Keldon Johnson, Payton Pritchard, Naz Reid, Malcolm Brogdon, and Tyler Herro—all played for a top-three team in their respective conference. So, that’s the first step toward getting Murray-Boyles into the conversation.
The next step would be if he can take a leap offensively to make his scoring numbers pop next to his undeniable defensive impact and rebounding. Scoring isn’t everything, but it draws a lot of attention. All of the last five winners finished the regular season at least seventh in total points off the bench, and Reid was definitely the outlier with that. Johnson, Pritchard, Brogdon, and Herro all finished third or better.
The playoffs were a first glimpse at what Murray-Boyles could do in an elevated role, and, although seven games is a small sample size, he didn’t disappoint on either end of the floor. Now, he also has an offseason to work on expanding his offense. So, it’s not unreasonable to expect a leap, even though defenses will now pay more attention to him.
The Raptors haven’t had a real Sixth Man of the Year candidate in a while
If Murray-Boyles breaks into the Sixth Man of the Year race, he will be the first Raptor with a legit shot at the award since Fred VanVleet who finished third in voting in 2018 behind Lou Williams and Eric Gordon. Williams also won the award in 2015 when he played in Toronto and is the only Raptors player to receive the honor so far.
Last year, Sandro Mamukelashvili got three out of the possible 500 points in the voting, and Shead got one. Chris Boucher finished eighth in the voting in 2021.
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