National Post (National Edition)
Boucher living his dream with Raptors
Canadian inks two-way contract
Canada’s basketball team will have some Canadian content this season, though you’ll probably have to head out to Mississauga to actually see Chris Boucher in action.
Boucher, 25, was signed to a two-way contract by the Toronto Raptors on Friday, meaning he can spend up to 45 days with the big club in 2018-19, while the rest of his time will be spent developing in Mississauga with Raptors 905 of the NBA G League.
The 6-foot-10 forward/ centre was born in Saint Lucia, but moved to Montreal when he was five and is seen as intriguing prospect because of his size, ability to both block shots and hit three-pointers.
Boucher had the crowd on its feet, chanting his name, several times on Wednesday when the Raptors played an exhibition game at Bell Centre in Montreal and afterward Boucher and head coach Nick Nurse talked of what an incredible moment it was.
Now, Boucher’s dream week has been capped by another highlight.
Still relatively new to the sport, Boucher is raw and should get a chance to improve under Jama Mahlalela and his staff with Raptors 905.
Boucher’s story is a remarkable one. He dropped out of school at 16, was discovered by chance and wowed with his natural athleticism, eventually finding his way to colleges in New Mexico and Wyoming, before transferring to Oregon.
As a Duck, Boucher set a school single-season record for blocks and was later named to the PAC-12 defensive team after leading the conference with 2.6 blocks per game.
A torn ACL prevented him from being selected in the NBA Draft, but Boucher played for Golden State’s affiliate in Santa Cruz last year after signing a two-way deal and went on to average 11.8 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks.
Boucher got into one NBA game for the Warriors before being waived. The Raptors invited him to Summer League in Las Vegas and Boucher turned some heads.
“It’s unbelievable. He’s come a long way in a very short … we’ve only been here a week, I had never seen him in my life until seven days ago,” Nurse said in Vegas.
After Boucher blocked six shots in one Summer League outing, Nurse remarked that Boucher smiled like a player knowing he had seized an opportunity when he took him out and congratulated him.
Boucher blocked three shots in six minutes against New Orleans on Thursday before getting injured.
Boucher beat out fellow centre Eric Moreland, who averaged 4.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in 13.6 pre-season minutes, for a spot behind Serge Ibaka, Jonas Valanciunas and Greg Monroe.
Keeping Boucher around was only one of the moves the Raptors made on Friday to get roster-compliant ahead of Wednesday night’s season debut against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Forward Deng Adel and Moreland were waived, along with guards Kyle Collinsworth and Kay Felder.
Adel averaged 8.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 12.3 minutes in two pre-season games and intrigued Toronto’s brain trust. However, the team stuck with its plan to keep a big man as its second two-way player (combo guard Jordan Loyd was signed to a two-way contract back in July). Adel can now ink a two-way deal with another club, or, failing that, agree to join Raptors 905 on a standard G League contract.
The Raptors will make a classy move in signing swingman Malcolm Miller to an Exhibit 10 contract, per The Athletic’s Blake Murphy. These types of deals give players a bonus even if they are waived (which is what is expected to happen, since Toronto will likely go with 14 players on the roster instead of 15 for luxury tax purposes) as long as they remain with the organization. That’s expected to be the case with Miller, a smooth shooter who started four of his 15 appearances with the Raptors last season but has run into bad injury luck. Miller is expected to rehab from the torn labrum he suffered while at Summer League, with Raptors 905.