The longest-tenured Toronto Raptors player needs to not return for his eighth season with the team.
Ask any Raptors fan for the Toronto players who spent the most seasons with the franchise, and they would likely guess the usual suspects. Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby. Longtime fans may think to say Alvin Williams or Jose Calderon.
Lowry does lead the way with nine seasons, as does DeRozan. Yet just behind them with a tenure of seven seasons is Chris Boucher -- hardly a household name. The longtime backup center joined the team for the championship run, had a couple of seasons of promise, and then faded into the background of the roster and the team's plans.
Yet Boucher never truly went away. He played 50 games this past season, averaging 17.2 minutes per game. Frequent injuries to players up-and-down the roster made room for him to stick around the rotation. Boucher never once started, and in fact has not started a single game in three seasons. His 176 games without starting a single one ranks 14th in the NBA over the past three seasons, with Georges Niang in first with 225 games off the bench without a start.
Boucher is not starting because he doesn't deserve to start; he is not a positive NBA player at this point in his career. He entered the NBA as an old rookie and is already 32 years old. He shot only 49.2 percent from the field as a big man and largely camps out on the perimeter, where his 36.3 percent from deep is decent, but hardly game-changing. Defensively he is known for his shot-blocking but is overall a negative defender.
He was fine last season, which enticed head coach Darko Rajakovic to play him, but he is not the answer to any of Toronto's questions. Given where they are as a franchise, as Boucher hit unrestricted free agency, it is time to say goodbye.
Chris Boucher needs to move on to another team
The Toronto Raptors are trying to find answers as a franchise to what the next decade looks like. Which players on the roster are a part of their future, and who is not? They have added a plethora of early-career talent over the past few seasons, but no one has run away with a central place on what is to come. This is a team in flux.
Veteran center Jakob Poeltl is still around, still reasonably productive, but not the team's long-term center. No one on the roster appears ready to step up and replace him, but this next season needs to be a time to figure out that position.
Is Ulrich Chomche an NBA player or is he going to wash out of the league? Is Jonathan Mogbo a forward or will he be stuck playing a hybrid smallball center role? Can Colin Castleton translate dominant G League stats into an NBA career? Why did the team not retain Branden Carlson?
Armed with the No. 9 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Raptors may very well add another center as well. Duke's Khaman Maluach and Maryland's Derik Queen are in the mix for the Top 10 and would give the Raptors more of a long-term answer at the position.
All of these young bigs need playing time, and Chris Boucher's presence on the roster blocks them. He also takes up a roster spot that should go to young players at this point as the Raptors figure out what they have. Boucher played well enough (at least, he scored well enough) to make more than the minimum next season; the Raptors cannot be tricked into paying him his next deal.
It's time to move on from Boucher, give playing time to the youngsters, and figure out the future instead of maintaining the past. It's possible someone on the current roster will make it to eight seasons with the franchise; that player cannot be Chris Boucher.