Poll: Would you make this trade For Boucher

[KG Living Legend]

 What's surprising in Boucher is hes already 28 years old. Saves us over 4 million this year. He's on a 7 million dollar expiring contract.  Breakout year last year. 13 and 6.6 boards I think.  2 blocks per game and a good three point shooter.

[Birdman]

Grant, Romeo & Edwards, heck yes

[C3LTSF4N]

I think he’s overrated and there are reasons Nurse didn’t play him more, like his size for one.

He’s listed at 6’9” and an even 200lbs.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was 195 or so.  Kinda rough for a ‘big’.

[KG Living Legend]

I think he’s overrated and there are reasons Nurse didn’t play him more, like his size for one.

He’s listed at 6’9” and an even 200lbs.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was 195 or so.  Kinda rough for a ‘big’.

 Come on man. You can't have it both ways nowadays.  You know who is ridiculously strong? Grant Williams.  One of the strongest guys ever tested pre-draft. And he stinks because he's 6'5"

 Boucher is 6'9" 7'4" wingspan.  Blocks shots and hits threes and you can get him without giving up too much.

 Trying to find a PF for this team who can actually defend and get Buckets for the Celtics.  Boucher can do that.

[Atzar]

I don't think Toronto does that. 

Boucher is a useful NBA player on a cheap deal.  On the other hand, Romeo is the only outbound player with any value, and even that value is dubious - there's some potential there but Langford's offense has been legitimately hideous to this point in his career.  I think Toronto would want to do better than that. 

[Who]

I don't think Toronto does that. 

Boucher is a useful NBA player on a cheap deal.  On the other hand, Romeo is the only outbound player with any value, and even that value is dubious - there's some potential there but Langford's offense has been legitimately hideous to this point in his career.  I think Toronto would want to do better than that.

Useful is such a great word here.

It describes the players in the trade so well. Only 1 player is useful. The other 3 are not useful with 1 player who may someday maybe become useful ... maybe.

[KG Living Legend]

 Dunn is useful on defense when healthy.  Grant is useful for the players association. 

 This trade also would allow us to sign Schroeder to the full 9.5 million dollar deal and would secure him as well.

[Hoopvortex]

 What's surprising in Boucher is already 28 years old. Saves us over 4 million this year. He's on a 7 million dollar expiring contract.  Breakout year last year. 13 and 6.6 boards I think.  2 blocks per game and a good three point shooter.

As usual, you’ve posted a really stimulating idea. Great discussion. A TP once again for you.

Toronto is my pick to be the top defensive team this season, and I’m even more confident that they’ll lead the league in deflections. They are insanely long, not excepting Scottie Barnes, who will likely get a lot of starts. Achiuwa is yet another 6’8” player with over 7-foot wingspan. As Jalen Rose once said, it’s NBA 2.0 - it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they started four of those guys plus Fred.

With the departure of Kyle and the doubtful future of Dragic in Toronto, they just might wind up with the worst half-court offense in the league, exacerbated by Siakam’s recovery from surgery for a torn shoulder labrum. They’ve simply got to up their tempo - one major reason why Barnes will get a lot of minutes.

These drastic extremes - plus the most innovative coach in the NBA - make the 21-22 Raps a must-see team for me.

[Celtics4ever]

Any C's fan would like that trade, but TOR would never ever do it not in a million years.

[KG Living Legend]

Any C's fan would like that trade, but TOR would never ever do it not in a million years.

.million.years a little harsh C4Eva.

 I don't think they plan on paying him. Only one season of any type of production and about to be 30 years old.

 Maybe attach a second rounder.

[C3LTSF4N]

I think he’s overrated and there are reasons Nurse didn’t play him more, like his size for one.

He’s listed at 6’9” and an even 200lbs.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was 195 or so.  Kinda rough for a ‘big’.

 Come on man. You can't have it both ways nowadays.  You know who is ridiculously strong? Grant Williams.  One of the strongest guys ever tested pre-draft. And he stinks because he's 6'5"

 Boucher is 6'9" 7'4" wingspan.  Blocks shots and hits threes and you can get him without giving up too much.

 Trying to find a PF for this team who can actually defend and get Buckets for the Celtics.  Boucher can do that.

Yeah I mean I hear you, he's a better player than Grant but giving up Romeo is kinda eh to me.  Boucher will probably make more than his 7m after next season so we'd be trading Romeo for 1 year of Boucher.  I think I'd rather see what we have in Romeo and potentially be able to use him in a deal that we're supposedly keeping our finances 'clean' for.

I just remember following Boucher a bit last season since I do a lot of fantasy b-ball and I read some articles on Nurse criticizing Boucher a decent amount.  Here's a decent article on him: https://www.si.com/nba/raptors/news/toronto-raptors-growing-pains-for-chris-boucher


“Well, he doesn’t rebound defensively very well," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said after a March 18th practice. "It’s difficult, man. If he’s going to be playing against big, strong 10-year veterans in the league, they’re gonna look at him, his stature, and try to plant him under the basket and push him out of the way, aren’t they?”

Defensive rebounding has been one of many big problems for Toronto this season. They're the second-worst defensive rebounding team in the NBA on a percentage basis, per Cleaning the Glass, and when Boucher is on the court they're even worse. They allow offensive rebounds on 29.7% of their opponent's misses when Boucher is playing, which is a percentage that ranks worse than the Minnesota Timberwolves who rank last in the league at 28.1%.

Then there's his defence in general. From a shot-blocking point of view, Boucher is elite. He's third in the league in total blocked shots this season and he's third in the NBA in contested 3-point shots, according to NBA Stats. He had the perfect combination of length, speed, hustle, and jumping ability to be a major problem for 3-point shooters. The key to his development will be learning how to control that incredible talent.

"Listen, it’s a little bit of a Catch-22 with him," Nurse said following Monday night's game in which Boucher took an ill-advised foul on a 3-point shooter in crunch time. "He blocks a lot of 3-point shots but any time you foul a 3-point shooter it seems like a really bad play and it usually is."