After Summer League, I wrote a piece about Collin Murray-Boyles and how he might force the Raptors to make a tough decision regarding his playing time during his rookie season. I wondered if he could justify earning a consistent spot in the rotation based on his defense alone. Now, here we are early in the 2025-26 regular season, and the Raptors are already facing some challenges. The team’s structure and confusing style of play seem to be costing them wins, and Toronto is quickly falling behind as a result.
While the Raps have been trailing their opponents and giving up an absurd amount of points in the paint lately, they've been exploring other options. For example, on October 29 against Houston, they gave Collin Murray-Boyles the starting role as the five-man because their starting center, Jakob Poeltl, was dealing with lower back tightness.
For a team that looks pretty rough overall as a defensive unit, Murray-Boyles has been a silver lining throughout the chaos. Not to mention, he's showing a willingness and poise when shooting the three-ball, which was a major red flag in his game before he entered the league. I have to admit, I’ve criticized him for it before, but just like he showed in his preseason sample size, it did not take long for CMB to silence the critics.
I thought he looked fantastic against the Spurs on October 27. Even though Toronto ultimately fell to the Spurs, there were a few standout defensive plays that showed Collin Murray-Boyles’ sharp eye for the ball. He stayed tight on Victor Wembanyama, which is no easy task for any NBA player, and managed to poke the ball away for a steal which led to a fast break bucket for Immanuel Quickley. Or keeping mobile against an athletic guard like Stephon Castle, staying hip-to-hip in line for a strong block as the reigning ROY attempted a layup — it was just a small glimpse of CMB’s talent and what he brings to the game.
Collin Murray-Boyles is making it hard for the Raptors to overlook him
And so, even early in the year, with a lot of uncertainty about what the Raptors' rotation will actually look like as the season goes on, I think CMB has really stepped up. He’s arguably taken the reins away from others who might’ve been ahead of him in the pecking order initially, such as Jonathan Mogbo and Ochai Agbaji, and I think he's on pace to earning more minutes on a regular basis as a result.
Mogbo has barely gotten into the rotation so far, with just 5.4 minutes of playing time this season. I did recently praise Agbaji's solid defensive effort (as did the Raptors themselves with their new post-game "Cobra Staff"), but he's quickly becoming a non-factor on offense, and that is very concerning. He's lost that three-point spark that defined his 2024-25 breakout — now just averaging a putrid 12.5% from deep.
It'll be interesting to see if Collin Murray-Boyles can keep up a commanding rookie performance as the entire class continues to draw eyes curious of their progression. Toronto could have a real gem in the making, even though the team has hit a rough spell early in the year.