The Toronto Raptors bade farewell to the last member of their championship team this summer when they did not bring Chris Boucher back. His decision to sign with the Boston Celtics looks like a grave mistake as his career begins to unravel.
As the Raptors' entire roster turned over in the years following their 2019 title, one mainstay on the bench was Chris Boucher. The onetime Oregon big man played a very small role on the title team, but in the years since he developed into a solid backup big with his skillset of shooting and shot-blocking. In all, he played 406 games across seven seasons for Toronto.
This past summer, as his contract expired, the Raptors elected not to bring Boucher back. That sent him out into the bright world of free agency to find his own way. When it was announced that he signed a minimum contract to join the Boston Celtics it was seen as a good choice. Boucher was a big man. The Celtics had a massive need for bigs after losing Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford. Round peg, round hole.
The reality, unfortunately, has been the exact opposite. For all that the Celtics do need to find their center of the future, the clear answer is that Boucher is going to play no part in answering that need. Playing on a roster whose center rotation is made up of Neemias Queta and Luka Garza -- Robert Parrish and Bill Walton they are not -- Boucher cannot even crack the rotation
Boucher is struggling on his new team
Chris Boucher has played in just eight games this season, averaging 11.4 minutes and taking less than three shots per contest. That isn't some inexplicable decision by the Celtics, either; Boucher is 7-for-22 from the field for the season, just 31.8 percent, and has only hit one of his 12 3-point attempts.
Boucher does remain active on defense with solid steal and block rates, but he has never been an elite rebounder and his passing is nonexistent. He is a play finisher, and his finishing has been terrible this year. Few players have been worse on offense this season than Chris Boucher.
Where the delta falls between Boucher playing poorly and the Celtics using him poorly is difficult to tell. His usage rate has plummeted, and he went from a Raptors team that consistently ranks near the top of the league in assists per game to the Celtics one that is bottom-5 in assists. The ecosystem may not be a good fit for Boucher, especially at this point in his career.
Would another team have resulted in a better mixture of player and team? Likely so. A scheme where he can pick-and-pop instead of merely spacing the court for Jaylen Brown to go to work would likely be a better fit. And if a team existed where he could have a more consistent spot in the rotation to start the year and catch his stride could have changed the entire trajectory from the start.
Perhaps things turn around for Chris Boucher and he finds his place in Boston. Perhaps he was always going to struggle and this is the end for him no matter what. Or perhaps, if Boucher had picked a different team this summer, things could have been different, and the longtime Raptor would be thriving.
Hindsight is 20/20, but it does seem that Boucher made a grave mistake this summer.