The Toronto Raptors were not among the more aggressive spenders over the first few days of this year’s NBA free agency period. They did shift much of their attention to keeping a pair of players, including Chris Boucher.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski noted on Thursday that Boucher agreed to a three-year, $35.25 million deal to stay put in Toronto. The team opted to use Boucher’s Bird rights to complete the deal and overall, the $35.25 million for the power forward is fully guaranteed.
Boucher did not have a shortage of suitors interested in signing him in free agency. HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto noted that teams such as the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, and Brooklyn Nets all expressed intrigue in coming to terms with him on a free agent agreement.
In the end, there were multiple factors as to why Boucher elected to instead remain in Toronto. Among them, Scotto mentioned that Boucher felt that Toronto has become his “home,” and that he has had a “consistent role” with the team.
Scotto further added that Boucher also decided to stay on with the Raptors because he sees that he can “continue to be given a chance to grow and expand his game.”
Boucher has blossomed as a keen role player for Raptors head coach Nick Nurse ever since he joined the organization over the 2018 free agency period. He is just coming off of a campaign where he featured in a career-high 80 regular season games, and he also posted a 9.4 points per game average, which was below his mark from the previous campaign (13.6).
Overall, Boucher is expected to once again be the Raptors' primary backup power forward for the coming season.
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