After the wild 2020 season ended, one of the teams that had the most questions about moving forward was the Toronto Raptors. The champions from just one season prior were facing a lot of potential changes from their title team, with the roster split with veterans from successful prior teams and younger players with potential. One of these younger players was fourth year player Chris Boucher, who resigned with the team this season. 

There was a huge hole to fill for him, especially with the team losing their key power forward and center from their title run, with Marc Gasol going to the Lakers and Serge Ibaka heading to the Clippers. These veterans took up a huge chunk of minutes in the frontcourt, so there were a lot of question marks on how that void would get filled this year.

Of all their roster changes, the emergence of the young forward has easily been the most useful for the team and is playing the best basketball of his career. Which is somewhat unusual considering it is his fourth year in the league, and is a late bloomer having just turned 28. Regardless of his path, the Raptors can be happy that he’s finally found his spot in the league.

What Fantasy Players Should Be Watching For

While the team was hopeful that with increased minutes his output would also increase, what we’ve seen so far from him has far surpassed what the Raptors would have expected. Through the first 22 games of the season Chris Boucher is putting up career highs across the board with 13 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game.

What’s even more impressive is that these quality numbers are all coming on just 22.2 minutes per game, and off the bench too. Aaron Banes has found himself in the starting role, but has seen less minutes and less production than the backup center.

One impressive aspect of the improvement in his fourth year is his marked increase in 3 point shooting percentage. Before this year, he was around a 33% shooter for his career behind the arc. This season he has come out firing at 44% from three, a drastic improvement.

For those who are in a fantasy league, this number is even more important. In roto leagues having a center making threes at that rate is extremely valuable (read this), and makes him an even more versatile player to have on the roster. Not to mention he also can play both the power forward and center position, which really helps roster flexibility and shows he’s a fantasy gem. A ‘gem’ is a growing Fantasy league term.   It refers to a player who’s getting big stats, but few notice.

Awards Odds

Some out there may be interested in their fantasy league, others might be using something like the A2S sports betting app to place a wager on him. He’s currently in the running for both the Most Improved Player Award along with the Sixth Man of the Year Award.

According to Odds Shark he’s +1400 for Sixth Man, which puts him as 6th overall in the odds. As for the Most Improved, he’s currently the third favorite, with odds of +2000, with Rockets forward Chrstian Wood looking as the front runner at -125.

If you’re looking for a wager with a great payout, Most Improved might be the play. However, with Wood playing at such a high level, it’s the riskier bet on that award.

All of these accolades would be quite the pleasant surprise, especially when coming into the season the expectations were so low. He was +5000 for the Sixth Man Award and +2500 for the Most Improved Award heading into the season according to Sports Odds History. So those who hopped on him early in the year are sitting pretty compared to where he stands now.

This Raptor’s player definitely has a story that reminds you of the music video for C.KHiD song “Forward.” Hopefully he can emulate the artist and rise up the charts like the hit single, and if he continues what we’ve seen, he will.

The start to the season has been quite unusual for the Raptors. Along with all the COVID guidelines that the rest of the teams are dealing with and losing two key frontcourt players, they also have the unusual circumstance of not actually playing in Toronto.

To deal with the issues of international travel during the pandemic, the Raptors opted to play in Tampa this season. So an untraditional year gets even weirder for them. All of this change has not been good for the team, as they have come out of the season slowly, currently sitting at 9-12, which puts them in 10th place in the east, but only a half game out of the playoffs.

Still, there are plenty of games left and they have been on a decent streak, going 6-4 over their last 10 games. One of the most reliable pieces they’ve had this year has been Chris Boucher coming off the bench with a savage  double-double streak. If they want to make any noise in the East as they catch their stride, he will surely be an important part of that.