What's Chris Boucher's Role With Siakim's Return?

[pingpongrac]

After watching Siakam screwing up just about everything last night, can I vote for Starter for Boucher? Give Siakam some minutes in the D-League to 'get right' so we can trade him.

Maybe this should be in a green font. Maybe not.

Definitely should be green font lol. Siakam had a rough stretch with a few turnovers in a span of 4 or 5 possessions, but he still had a solid night putting up 8/7/3/2 while being a -3 in 30 minutes. Pretty decent considering it was his 2nd game in 6 months after shoulder surgery. Meanwhile Boucher gave us nothing but a couple boards and a comedy of errors while being a -8 in 7 minutes.

Boucher has had maybe two good games all season. He has been the weak link defensively off the bench (because of plays like the one highlighted in this thread). His .415 TS% coupled with his 10.4 TOV% is just dreadful. His minutes need to be entirely cut as soon as we're healthy unless he magically remembers how to shoot and improves his awareness on both ends (which seems unlikely considering he is almost 29).

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[HomieOmey]

Not a fan of keeping Precious, Boucher, and Siakam. All three really want to score, and Precious and Boucher definitely make some big mistakes on defence. I really hope he's traded before the deadline - assuming we are keeping Siakam.

[niQ]

Boucher with two of the worst defensive plays you’ll see in ten seconds or so.

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Man, saw shades of Aaron Gray.

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

[C_Money]

Yeah he checked in at the 1:28 mark of the 3rd quarter and made about 5 mistakes before the buzzer sounded. Didn’t come back in for the 4th.

[ItsDanger]

At some point, enough is enough.

[refshateRaps]

He really shouldn't be getting many minutes going forward. Hope his shot comes back one day

[kirkwood]

Of all the players he has been the most odd and surprising, last year he was showing signs of being a very viable and productive guy off the bench.

This year it looks as if he has never touched a basketball or been on a basketball court in his life.


Complete 360, very disappointing. Something is terribly wrong with him right now. Best guess is he did absolutely nothing in the offseason and expected last years success to carry over without any work.

[ash_k]

NN should have started him instead of Svi in that little stretch.
Mentally, he is checked out right now(This is beyond the contract-year pressure). We have too much evidence of him playing at a high-level to give up on him after just 12 games(or 25 games).
Boucher played like a bordeline 6th MOY candidate, at times, last season.

[ATLTimekeeper]

NN should have started him instead of Svi in that little stretch.
Mentally, he is checked out right now(This is beyond the contract-year pressure). We have too much evidence of him playing at a high-level to give up on him after just 12 games(or 25 games).
Boucher played like a bordeline 6th MOY candidate, at times, last season.

Chris is a north-south all-star and an east-west scrub. I think that his feet on the perimeter are truly terrible, and we will likely see Yuta try and swipe his job. There's nothing that Chris can do on defense that Yuta can't, and Yuta has those super quick feet on the perimeter and closes out in control. It's Chris' shot that is valuable to the Raptors, and there's more evidence of him being a bad shooter than a good one. This would be a tough call, and Boucher isn't the real problem, but you can't wait all year on him becoming a solution. There's too many guys that bring what he brings, and others that bring what he can't bring.

[ash_k]

NN should have started him instead of Svi in that little stretch.
Mentally, he is checked out right now(This is beyond the contract-year pressure). We have too much evidence of him playing at a high-level to give up on him after just 12 games(or 25 games).
Boucher played like a bordeline 6th MOY candidate, at times, last season.

Chris is a north-south all-star and an east-west scrub. I think that his feet on the perimeter are truly terrible, and we will likely see Yuta try and swipe his job. There's nothing that Chris can do on defense that Yuta can't, and Yuta has those super quick feet on the perimeter and closes out in control. It's Chris' shot that is valuable to the Raptors, and there's more evidence of him being a bad shooter than a good one. This would be a tough call, and Boucher isn't the real problem, but you can't wait all year on him becoming a solution. There's too many guys that bring what he brings, and others that bring what he can't bring.

As long as Chris keeps underperforming more like "no-showing", anybody can have his minutes even a 9th/10th man like Yuta.
He essentially reproduced Serge's production last year, right away. He had way too many good performances last season. He is not even the same human-being out there right now. We have to give him more time. That Birch-Boucher combo has looked good despite Boucher's struggles. It is tough to watch him struggle like this

[Wannabe MEP]

Offense

He is shooting poorly. That's a real problem. It's possible his shooting problems are in part explained by 1) surgery on his finger a few weeks ago, and 2) the switch to playing mostly the four -- means he's being guarded by a quicker player and getting fewer open looks. It's possible that he'll get more comfortable in time. I don't know though.

Defense

On defense, I don't really understand the disconnect between the narrative on this board and the advanced stats: one says he's horrible on defense, and the other says he's in the running for the best defender on the team so far this year. E.g., 538 has him at #1 in ON/OFF RAPTOR for defense and Overall RAPTOR for defense. He's also #1 by defensive rating on NBA.com with a pretty sizable gap on everybody else.

I get that he looks awkward and makes mistakes sometimes, but it's fairly obvious to me that his hustle and length are fundamentally disruptive to the other team's ability to score the basketball. That shows in traditional stats like blocks and steals, indirect stats like opponent's FG% and defensive rating, and more nuanced advanced stats like 538's. The math argument that he's been a highly effective defender this year seems pretty much unassailable to me.

[DelAbbot]

Offense

He is shooting poorly. That's a real problem. It's possible his shooting problems are in part explained by 1) surgery on his finger a few weeks ago, and 2) the switch to playing mostly the four -- means he's being guarded by a quicker player and getting fewer open looks. It's possible that he'll get more comfortable in time. I don't know though.

Defense

On defense, I don't really understand the disconnect between the narrative on this board and the advanced stats: one says he's horrible on defense, and the other says he's in the running for the best defender on the team so far this year. E.g., 538 has him at #1 in ON/OFF RAPTOR for defense and Overall RAPTOR for defense. He's also #1 by defensive rating on NBA.com with a pretty sizable gap on everybody else.

I get that he looks awkward and makes mistakes sometimes, but it's fairly obvious to me that his hustle and length are fundamentally disruptive to the other team's ability to score the basketball. That shows in traditional stats like blocks and steals, indirect stats like opponent's FG% and defensive rating, and more nuanced advanced stats like 538's. The math argument that he's been a highly effective defender this year seems pretty much unassailable to me.

you are submerged in these stats that don't really isolate Boucher's impact. Need to watch him play

[KL78192020]

He's having a good game, remember he was also injured as missed pre season.

[WaltFrazier]

Finally a good game this season. Because he got a few dunks, all credit to him. The earlier north-south vs east-west comment nails him perfectly. He can dunk when uncontested, and shoot threes sometimes.

On defense he can't guard strong guys inside, can't cover quick guys on the wing. He can fly out on threes, and block shots from weakside, and generally be disruptive in scrambly situations like tonight. In halfcourt against good teams his D isn't as effective.

[C Court]

Strong bounce back game for Chris.

[ItsDanger]

Sell high opportunity!

[Kingsway_fan]

Play him as backup 5

[TorontoBaller]

Bobby Boucher is the waterboy!!!!

[Tofubeque]

Boucher with two of the worst defensive plays you’ll see in ten seconds or so.

Read on Twitter

I know this is from a few days ago but are we watching the same video here? He ran shooters off the 3pt line twice, both times they were directed into 2 other defenders, it resulted in a turnover the 1st time and denied the pass to an open corner 3 the second time.

Would you rather give up 6 points instead of 2 in that sequence? Sheesh

[WaltFrazier]

Boucher with two of the worst defensive plays you’ll see in ten seconds or so.

Read on Twitter

I know this is from a few days ago but are we watching the same video here? He ran shooters off the 3pt line twice, both times they were directed into 2 other defenders, it resulted in a turnover the 1st time and denied the pass to an open corner 3 the second time.

Would you rather give up 6 points instead of 2 in that sequence? Sheesh

Better to close out under control rather than out of control. That way you still discourage or prevent the 3, but not give up the blow by.

He has trouble keeping any player in front of him in any case.