Maybe we should have known Toronto would strike gold at the 2025 NBA draft. After all, the team held the ninth-overall selection and history has shown that is a great place to be for the Raptors. Tracy McGrady was selected there in 1997 and, though he left Toronto too early, McGrady became an all-time great scorer and a basketball hall of fame inductee. The Raptors went with DeMar DeRozan 12 years after McGrady's draft and he became one of the best players in franchise history. Current starting centre Jakob Poeltl was a solid choice at nine in 2016 and the team appears to have done even better in nabbing Collin Murray-Boyles with the ninth pick last June.
Strong Rookie Season
Murray-Boyles had a strong rookie season, even if his counting numbers did not stand out. His defence was way ahead of what most first-year players provide and he showed flashes on offence in his 57 appearances. There clearly was still room to grow, but the future looked bright. Nobody expected the future to arrive right away. All Murray-Boyles has done in his first four playoff games is look like one of the best players on the court, dominating games defensively while shooting an NBA-best 65.9% from the field.
Playoff Breakout
After setting a Raptors rookie scoring record of 20 points in a Game 3 win over Cleveland, Murray-Boyles notched his first double-double in Sunday's series-tying rock fight. The Columbia, S.C., native looked right at home in that old school grind-fest and had two of the game's most impactful plays — a monster one-handed put-back of a Brandon Ingram miss and, more importantly, the key defensive stop on Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell in the dying seconds, after which CMB flexed and roared in delight.
"I'm just cherishing the moments like this," Murray-Boyles said afterward. "When the crowd is in it, everybody's on their feet, the energy is just, I never felt anything like it, so it just makes me smile all the time. Just being able to be a part of this and a part of those moments is really, really big for me."
Unlike most rookies, or 20-year-olds (yes, Murray-Boyles will not turn 21 until June), he feels he is ready for assignments like Mitchell, James Harden or Evan Mobley. "I already have the confidence to guard those types of, those caliber guys. That is just something I wanted to do as soon as I got in the league, was just guard the best of the best, try to make it as hard as possible (for them)," he said.
Impact Alongside Scottie Barnes
Mission accomplished, so far, particularly when Murray-Boyles has been alongside Scottie Barnes. Cleveland was held to 29% shooting in Game 4 when both were on the court. "CMB, he is a helluva defender. We have the utmost trust in him," Barnes said of the rookie. "He has guarded me all pre-season and I know how well he guards. We was trusting him right there (against Mitchell). We are going to ride with CMB, he is an amazing defender and our defence gets better when he is on the floor."
The stats back that up. In 48 minutes (two games worth of play) during the series where the two big men have also been on the floor with tenacious point guard Jamal Shead, they have outscored the Cavaliers by 15.1 points per 100 possessions, a massive number. They have also held Cleveland to 103 points per 100 possessions, which would be three points lower than Oklahoma City's NBA-best 106.5 defensive rating this season (and far below Toronto's fifth-best 112.1 defensive rating).
"Most of the time, really do not have to talk to each other to know where we are supposed to be or know where we got each other's back," Murray-Boyles said of combining with Barnes. "We kind of built that as the season has gone along. Like, where we need to be, when each other is guarding, or when anyone is guarding, to be honest, where we need to be. How we can help off the ball, just the tenacity we have on the ball. We both are going to try our hardest to try to get the stop."
Coach Rajakovic's Praise
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, who has made plenty of excellent calls over the past two games, including increasing Murray-Boyles's role, cannot stop raving about him. "What I love about CMB is he is the ultimate competitor. He is a winner. He is a warrior," Rajakovic said even before the latest head-turning display. "He does not care who is on the other side. He does not care what is your name. He does not care about your precious achievements. He does not get fazed by that. He is going into the game with the mentality he is going to dominate."
Rajakovic then told a story of how Murray-Boyles had only started working on shooting floaters for about a month and a half (then he had gone on to put on a clinic with them in Game 3, looking extremely comfortable) and used how fast he has picked up that skill as an illustration of his uncommon ability to process instructions at a rapid rate. "Talent is not in my mind something that God gave you, your physique or athletic abilities," Rajakovic said. "It is your ability to learn and implement what you are working on. He is one of the most talented players I have ever been around in that regard. He really quickly implements the things that he is working on. He continues to surprise me, how quickly he is doing that, especially still being 20 years old."
