With Sandro Mamukelashvili headed to the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency, the Raptors are even shorter on 3-point shooting in the frontcourt than they were last season. They drafted Allen Graves, who shot 41.3% on 2.6 3-point attempts per game at Santa Clara, but he still needs to prove that his shot can translate to the NBA—as the Raptors know from their Gradey Dick experience, that’s not always a given.
Kyle Anderson, who joined the team in free agency, took just eleven 3-pointers last season, Jakob Poeltl doesn’t shoot from deep, and Scottie Barnes is a 30.1% 3-point shooter for his career. Collin Murray-Boyles also wasn’t much of an outside threat in his rookie season. He went 17-50, shooting with decent efficiency at 34% but not taking nearly enough shots to make defenses worry about him from behind the arc.
The Raptors are hoping Murray-Boyles can eventually take a significant step forward in that area and become a reliable 3-point threat. He may never become the type of shooter who will happily take a contested 3-pointer or launch a deep shot with the game on the line, but the Raptors need him to be at least comfortable with and capable of knocking down catch-and-shoot threes when, for example, Scottie Barnes draws a crowd in the paint and needs a kick-out option.
Raptors reporter Michael Grange reported in a Sportsnet article from July 8 that “There has been a lot of work on Murray-Boyles’ shooting, as well, and Simovic—whose regular-season role is as the Raptors’ lead development coach—is optimistic that he will eventually emerge as a reliable catch-and-shoot threat from beyond the three-point line, though he cautions it’s a lot to expect in one five-month off-season.”
Murray-Boyles is already an incredibly versatile defender. If he can also become more versatile offensively, it would go a long way for his long-term fit with Scottie Barnes and the Raptors’ lineup options. The Raptors are obviously intrigued by an opportunity to build around Barnes and Murray-Boyles and their defense for years to come. That will be a lot easier if Murray-Boyles improves as an outside threat.
A July 10 matchup with the Celtics’ summer league team will be the first opportunity to see glimpses of Murray-Boyles’ 3-point work in game action.
The Raptors have high expectations for Murray-Boyles’ second season
Murray-Boyles missed a bunch of games with a thumb injury last season, but was effective when he played and averaged the eighth-most minutes in the Raptors’ rotation. All of his numbers shot up in the playoffs, including his playing time. He averaged more minutes than Poeltl and Mamukelashvili and usually played 26 or more minutes.
The fact that Darko Rajakovic had that kind of trust in him in his first-ever NBA playoffs already foreshadowed a much bigger role in his second season. The Raptors’ summer league coach confirmed those suspicions, as reported by Grange.
“‘We need him to play a lot for us,’ says Raptors assistant coach Ivo Simovic, who is the head coach for the team’s entry in the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League, with the Raptors’ first game coming Friday on campus at UNLV. ‘He needs to be able to play with Kawhi (Leonard), with Scottie, with Jak (Poeltl), with all those guys. We need him to play 30-plus minutes, and to do that, you cannot be one-dimensional,’” wrote Grange.
Ever since Murray-Boyles burst onto the scene, Poeltl’s Raptors future has been in question. As of now, he is still on the roster and expected to continue as the starting center. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a pathway for Murray-Boyles to play a bigger role.
Poeltl hasn’t played more than 57 games in the last three seasons and only played 46 this past season. He is bound to miss some time, which will create starting opportunities for Murray-Boyles. Moreover, in many matchups, Murray-Boyles’ disruptive presence and switchability on defense will be more useful than Poeltl’s size. So, even if he’s coming off the bench, he may play more minutes than the veteran in many games.
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