Last season Chris Boucher was the biggest gain of the Toronto Raptors' entire disappointing season, because the Toronto Raptors had huge shortcomings in the center position, Ninas arranged for Boucher to play the center, the great white Baynes was only the nominal starting center, he only appeared in the first and third quarters, most of the rest of the time line was responsible for Boucher, his performance was very efficient, especially the offensive end of the outside three-point shine, Kyle Lowry and VanVleet liked to block and match him the most, When the team was struggling due to the epidemic and injuries, it was he who had been strong enough to lead the team forward, the raptors fans shouted for him the slogan was "Bouche Boucher, never stop", he entered the shortlist of the best sixth man and the fastest improved player, and at the end of last season, he was plagued by injuries and began to miss, but I felt that he had a bright future and the team should give him a big contract.
There is an old Chinese saying called thirty not confused, Boucher is 29 years old this year, he matured a little earlier, this year's play style is more and more team-oriented, into the new season with Siakam's return from injury and Scott Barnes's stunning appearance, Boucher's role in the offensive end has become less, the team's dependence on Boucher's outside firepower has decreased, because all of Boucher's advantages are on the offensive end, which affects his efficiency and various data, the inside line guard and defense are Boucher's weaknesses, Nickners in order to make up for his weaknesses, play his strengths, Adjusting him from the No. 5 position to the 3-4 position, and even sometimes putting him in the role of a cameo point guard, judging by the performance of the past season, this change can only be regarded as barely qualified, and it has not had the desired effect, and this year Boucher's contract is about to expire, but it may not get a big contract as I expected.
The main problem affecting Boucher's acquisition of a large contract is still his defense, the role player wants to get a contract of ten million is mainly to meet two conditions, there is a good scoring means and excellent defense, of course, the scoring means of the hand is more valuable if the 3-point shot, Boucher's career has always been short on the defensive end, there are three main problems:
1. Defensive blocking is not qualified, which is almost the common disease of most of the league's center inside line, although Boucher's weight is not very heavy, but his movement rate is still not fast, in the Nickners emphasis on the infinite change of defense of the defensive system, this has become Boucher's fatal injury, you let him do the squat pit inside line, his rim protection ability can only be regarded as a passing level.
2. The defense is not smart enough, Boucher's height arm span has an advantage in interfering with shooting, and his defensive enthusiasm is very high, but too rash will often fall into the opponent's defensive trap, gambling-style defense is extremely immature in front of experienced players, in the past two seasons, he has committed 5.0 and 4.1 fouls per 36 minutes, if it were not for his long-term appearance on the bench, frequent fouls would directly make him lose playing time.
3. There is no physique of the inner line, the NBA's inner line small penalty area is a fighting field, Boucher's physique is too thin, as a center his rebounding guarantee is not stable enough, and rebounding is the lifeblood of the small lineup defense, while the current East has Embiid, Alphabet Brother and other top interior line, Boucher's personal ability is completely unable to compete with them.
To put it simply, Boucher, whether as a new type of interior line or a traditional interior line, does not have qualified defensive ability at all, last year the team's defensive efficiency will decline in the case of Boucher's debut, this year he did not become the team's defensive burden, as I said earlier, Nickners complements each other, the first shortcoming and the third shortcoming Nicknas's corresponding strategy is to arrange Boucher to play the 2-4 position, do his best to play his offensive advantage, and at the same time arrange him to defend the outside line at the defensive end, his footsteps may be at a loss, But as the first line of defense even if he is broken through teammates can still make up for him, his height arm span advantage can interfere with the outside shot, when he is against the opponent's 3-4 position, the weight disadvantage will be reduced, he can use his body size advantage to continue to protect the rebound, and the second disadvantage is the problem of defensive experience, his fouls per 36 minutes dropped to 3.8, although it is a small improvement but also marks a slow maturity.
When his problems on the defensive end are solved, the offense is more valuable, on the offensive end of his two housekeeping skills one is the outside of the fixed point three-point, one is actively fighting for the rebound in the front court after the second offense, it is regrettable that his outside three points this season ushered in a relatively large data decline, the three-point shooting rate plummeted from 38% last season to 28%, the basket offense is doing well, the basket finish rate has reached a career high, but considering that he does not have a low singles role at all, Most of his basket finishes are actively fighting for the second offense or blocking after the rebound in the front court, and the value of this basket's high end rate is not too high, and his offensive victory contribution value has dropped from 4.0 last season to 3.0 this season.
As I said in the toronto raptors' tactical revolution the day before yesterday, the Raptors spend most of their time practicing a 7-man rotation strategy, their starting lineup ranks first in the league in total playing time, Boucher plays the role of the sixth man, his defensive progress this season but the regression of offensive ability can not provide the team with sustained firepower, and he is 29 years old, expecting him to usher in greater progress is nothing more than a fool's dream, he is a good player, strong mental attributes, but with the current performance the Raptors should not give him too much contract, His three-point shot needs to get back to normal and increase stability, which is his biggest selling point, and if he doesn't do that well, there's really nothing wrong with Kerr giving up on him.