The following is part of Raptors Republic’s series of pieces reviewing the season for the Toronto Raptors. You can find all the pieces in the series here.
Have we seen the last of the final standing pillar of the 2019 NBA championship roster? A fan favourite in Toronto, the Montreal natives contract is set to expire during this offseason, and it would be surprising to see Boucher return to Toronto.
Boucher played the exact same number of games in the last two seasons under new head Coach Darko Rajakovic and honestly had two similar seasons. He was a part of the Raptors rotation early on in both seasons, only to completely vanish after a few months. Also, a coincidence is that he played 50 games in both seasons, but overall, this season he saw 157 more minutes of court time.
Before we get into his play, let’s talk about what Montreal’s finest was able to do off the court this season. Just over a week ago, Chris Boucher was named as a finalist for the NBA Social Justice Champion award for his efforts to help out Toronto and Montreal’s communities with his SlimmDuck foundation, which he founded in October 2022.
Boucher’s numbers in the first month of the regular season ended with averages of 17.2 minutes, 39.5 field goal percentage, 26.3 three-point percentage, with 1.4 blocks, 4.2 rebounds and 8.6 points per game. He struggled to find his rhythm offensively early on, but those are solid numbers for just over 17 minutes.
In the first full month of the regular season, Boucher saw upticks in most of the categories discussed during his first month, as he was given 18.7 minutes per night in November, along with 50.4 field goal percentage, 31.6 three-point percentage, 4.8 rebounds and 10.8 points per game. This was his second-best month over the regular season, efficiency-wise, and he was still a mainstay in the rotation.
The month of November would be the highest amount of minutes he averaged during the 24/25 season, as after that, in December, his minutes were back down to 17.2 per game. December was also the first time that Boucher was dropped from the rotation. After a 3/13 shooting display against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Boucher received three straight DNP-CD (Did not play, Coach’s decision). After that, he was back on the court for the December 16 matchup against the Chicago Bulls, and he stayed in the rotation to end the month.
Although Boucher was a part of the rotation to end December, he saw 12 minutes against the Atlanta Hawks on December 29 and 14 minutes against the Boston Celtics in an ugly 125-71 loss to end the 2024 year. Toronto was also blown out by Atlanta during his 12-minute outing, and had both games not been a blowout out his minutes might’ve been even less. The writing was on the wall there, as once January came, Boucher would be dropped for the second time out of the rotation.
It didn’t take long for the Oregon product to re-enter the rotation as he started the new year with a five-minute showing against the Brooklyn Nets in a blowout win. That wasn’t the game that won him a spot back, but he was at least getting minutes during garbage time. His moment came just one game after that against the other New York team, the Knicks. Once again, in garbage time, Boucher was given four minutes of playing time, but he sent a message during this one. A perfect four for four from the field, which ended up totalling to 10 points with a perfect trip to the free throw line as well.
That was the start of a wild four-game stretch for Boucher. He shot 25/33 from the field. That’s just under 76 percent from the field. It was four consecutive games above 10 points, with the most coming against the Cleveland Cavaliers on January 9, with 23 points in 27 minutes. That performance was followed by a 14-point outing in Detroit, where all 14 points came in the first quarter by Chris Boucher.
Perhaps the most memorable performance, though, came at the end of that four-game stretch against the Golden State Warriors at home. 17 of his 18 points in this game came in the fourth quarter, and Boucher was completely taking over games to either keep the Raptors in the game or carry them over the finish line to the win.
January ended up being his best month of the season as he shot 63.4 percent from the field, 53.1 percent beyond the arc and averaged 11.5 points per game.
It was a brief period of form, but even when Boucher wasn’t at his best, he definitely could still contribute to a 10-man rotation. The fact that he went missing after the February 26 game against the Indiana Pacers, to not see another minute of court time, is an unfair treatment to the last member of the only championship-winning roster in franchise history, even if it was a developmental year for the youngsters. It would be very surprising to see if Boucher did return to Toronto, given how the last two seasons ended up turning out for him.
