Latest news with #ChrisBoucher
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Raptors Free Agent Breaks Silence on Potentially Leaving Team
Raptors Free Agent Breaks Silence on Potentially Leaving Team originally appeared on Athlon Sports. After missing the playoffs once again last season, the Toronto Raptors will likely have a busy offseason in front of them as they look to get things back on track. Toronto owns the No. 9 pick in this year's draft, which kicks off on Wednesday. Whether they keep the pick or include it in a trade remains to be seen, but it seems like all options may be open for the team. Advertisement As the Raptors aim to bolster their roster, they will also have to consider the futures of some of their current players. This includes big man Chris Boucher, who is set to hit unrestricted free agency this offseason. Toronto Raptors forward Chris Boucher (25).© David Richard-Imagn Images Boucher has spent the last seven seasons of his career in Toronto. Additionally, he is the only player remaining from the 2018-19 championship team. However, the 32-year-old recently provided an update on what his playing future could hold ahead of his free agency and made it clear he could return to Toronto or play "somewhere where they want to win" (h/t Michael Scotto of HoopsHype). "Obviously, I want to play with a team that's going for winning... When I look at the playoffs, I don't see myself not being in it. I'd say there are a lot of things I can do to help a team. I feel like with Toronto, I've always been lucky to be with this team trying to win. This year, it was a little bit different, and it felt a little different," Boucher said in an interview with Scotto. "Now it's about how I can get better and be wherever it is, whether it's here in Toronto or somewhere where they want to win. If that's the case, then that's where I should be." Advertisement Last season, Boucher appeared in 50 games for the Raptors. In those games, he averaged 10 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 49.2% from the field and 36.3% from beyond the arc. Boucher provides a veteran presence in Toronto and offers solid depth. However, it seems that he may have already played his final game with the team, and it could be worth monitoring his status in free agency this summer. Related: Raptors Champion Receives Major Update on NBA Future Related: Raptors Named in Trade Report After Giannis Antetokounmpo News This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
National Post
30-04-2025
- Sport
- National Post
Popular Raptor Chris Boucher talks free agency, charitable work, inspiring life story
Article content You could make a movie about Chris Boucher's life story. Article content Forget Rudy, Boucher didn't even play organized basketball until he was 19 years old and has gone on to become a veteran of over 400 NBA games, all but one with the Toronto Raptors. Article content Earlier, he was at times homeless, not in school and unsure of where the future would take him. Article content To live his basketball dream, Boucher had to leave Montreal — where he and his family settled after immigrating from Saint Lucia when he was five years old — and attend multiple schools in the U.S. in places quite foreign to him. Article content Article content He had to overcome an injury that derailed a potential NCAA championship season at Oregon and kept him from being drafted, and then had to fight tooth and nail to earn a spot with the Raptors in 2018, seizing storybook moments in Las Vegas at NBA Summer League and then, poetically, in an exhibition game in Montreal to make the team. Article content Boucher, the longest-tenured Raptor, will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and, though not impossible, it seems highly unlikely he'll get a chance to chase down the 11 Raptors who have played more games than him for the franchise over the years (largely owing to Toronto's luxury tax concerns). Article content Speaking to Postmedia this week, Boucher seemed at ease with whatever the future holds and justifiably proud of his time with the Raptors. Article content 'I watch the NBA, I watch the playoffs and I see that there's a lot of need for players like (himself),' he said this week while heading to a charitable event in Scarborough. 'As a free agent now, the only thing to do is you take this summer, you work on the little things that you want to get better in and obviously you wait for the draft, you wait for the playoffs and then the conversations will get started. Article content 'I can be satisfied with what I did this season (he called it one of his best) and for whatever comes after, the conversations will be happening and I'll have a better idea of what the future is going to look like.' Article content Article content It was a complicated season for Boucher and a Raptors franchise that had two goals for 2024-25, neither of them compatible with where the 32-year-old big man was at this point of his career: Develop the many young players on the roster and lose enough games to have a shot at a top pick in May's draft lottery. Article content That left Boucher out of the mix for the final 23 games of the season. As team president Masai Ujiri later explained while lauding Boucher for his professionalism, the team knew what it had in Boucher, but needed to find out about the likes of Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle.
