Raptors' Chris Boucher on bench minutes under Nick Nurse: 'Not everybody got their chances'

On the latest episode of “Hustle Play with Chris Boucher,” the Montreal native talked about how he thought “everybody” on the Toronto Raptors bench should have received more minutes this season under Nick Nurse.

When asked about who in particular he would have liked to see on the court more this past season, Boucher said they all should have played more. The Raptors ranked last in total bench minutes — 580 minutes back of the 29th-ranked team — and second last in points off the bench this season, getting just 28 points per game from their reserves.

“To be honest with you, if you got the chance to watch practice and the training camp we had this year, everybody came in with a difference to the game, everybody had expectations this year, everybody went last summer and worked," he said. "We went to L.A. and everybody was doing really well — it’s hard work that guys were putting in and I feel like not everybody got their chances.

"That obviously takes different players to different places. You know me, back then, if I didn’t play it’d probably make me mad to want to work more, but some people are just different.”

Boucher’s belief in giving the bench more minutes stems from his trust in team president Masai Ujiri. Ujiri is a big proponent of developing players internally but when the prospects don’t get enough run, tensions build between a general manager and coach.

“Masai is all about inside growth,” Boucher said. “Obviously, he’s always been like that. That’s how you got guys like Fred [VanVleet], guys like Norman [Powell], guys like me, guys like Pascal [Siakam] — that’s all Masai. He finds the guys that he knows want to get better, that want to win and believes in those guys.

"He believed in me every time and I got better every time. He has those same beliefs in some of those guys off the bench and usually, when he believes in something, he’s right. It’s hard when he gets a first-rounder here, a second-rounder here, and he feels like those guys are going to help us but they don’t get to play — that will definitely start some issues between a coach and a GM if that’s the case.”

The 30-year-old also pointed to former Raptors players Yuta Watanabe and Oshae Brissett as examples of guys who showcased their true potential when given a larger opportunity elsewhere.

“There are some guys in the league that I would say I don’t even respect their game but I feel like you see them play with somebody else and say, ‘he’s really good with what he’s doing right now,’” Boucher explained. “Guys like Yuta, I really love his game, I loved his game when he was here but I never saw the level of shooting that he had here until he went to Brooklyn. Like he had it here but when he went over there I was like, ‘damn.’

"Oshae, when he was here he was really good but it never seemed like he could put it all together. When he went to the Pacers, he was just out there.”

In his first season with Brooklyn, Watanabe averaged 16 minute per game compared to 11.7 last season with the Raptors, and he responded with a career year in points (5.6), FG% (.491), 3-point percentage (44.4%) and true shooting percentage (63.7%). Brissett saw his minutes jump from 7.1 per game under Nurse in 2019-2020 to 24.7 with Indiana the following season, and likewise he also became a productive player off the bench averaging 10.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

Boucher was one of the few players Nurse regularly turned to off the bench this season, as he averaged 20-plus minutes per game for the third straight season. The Raptors parted ways with Nurse last week after a disappointing season that culminated with a play-in game loss to the Chicago Bulls.