Raptors looking to push Murray-Boyles out of comfort zone at Summer League

LAS VEGAS – Collin Murray-Boyles‘ first priority following his highly successful rookie season was to do nothing. No trips. No celebrations. No shopping sprees. 

He went home to Columbia, S.C. “Home was the trip,” said Murray-Boyles. It was his first true break in nearly two years, pre-dating his second season at the University of South Carolina. He slept in a bit. He hit some of his preferred breakfast nooks around town. “We got good spots in Columbia.” He ate his mom’s cooking: Oxtail stew, spaghetti with meat sauce, and various soul-food specialties. 

And if it doesn’t conform precisely to the letter of an elite athlete’s diet? Well, sometimes you just have to be comfortable.

“Good home cooking,” said Murray-Boyles. “It’s not supposed to be the healthiest. Yeah, it’s supposed to feel like home.”

In short order, work came calling, bringing Murray-Boyles to Las Vegas, where he heads the Raptors’ entry in the NBA Summer League, which tips off this week. 

If his brief post-season pause was about being comfortable and enjoying the simplicity of sleeping in your own bed and eating your mom’s cooking, the weeks since have been about getting Murray-Boyles out of his basketball comfort zone.

There are plenty of things the Raptors and Murray-Boyles have been working on as they look toward a second season everyone hopes will build on his first, where the No. 9 pick in the NBA Draft earned all-rookie honours and, more importantly, showed through the regular season and especially the playoffs that he can make winning plays in volume. Steals, deflections and blocked shots on defence, coupled with offensive rebounds, tough finishes and smart ball movement on the offensive end. 

But the real goal can be summed up in the most basic measure of all: minutes played. 

“We need him to play a lot for us,” says Raptors assistant coach Ivo Simovic, who is the head coach for the team’s entry in the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League, with the Raptors’ first game coming Friday on campus at UNLV. “He needs to be able to play with Kawhi (Leonard), with Scottie, with Jak (Poeltl), with all those guys. We need him to play 30-plus minutes, and to do that, you cannot be one-dimensional.”

Last season, Murray Boyles averaged 21.7 minutes per game, but that jumped to 27.3 in the playoffs. He responded impressively as he averaged 14.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks over seven games against Cleveland on 65.6-per-cent shooting (compared with 8.5/5.0/1.9/0.9/0.9/57.9 per cent during the regular season). But the majority of his minutes in both instances came as an undersized centre. He used his wide-bodied, six-foot-seven frame well, but if the Raptors and Murray-Boyles are going to be at their best, he needs to be able to take on other responsibilities. 

To that end, Simovic has spent four full weeks working with Murray-Boyles – three in Toronto and a week in Columbia, where Murray-Boyles hosted a mini-camp for eight of his younger teammates at the University of South Carolina. 

The focus has been on helping Murray-Boyles expand his game: take reps as the ballhandler in pick-and-roll situations; acting as a grab-and-go point guard in transition and working on his shooting so that he can help space the floor when he shares the court with the rest of the Raptors starters. 

He’ll get a chance to put those new areas of focus to the test in live action this week in Summer League. 

“To be more aggressive, be more on ball, making reads, making decisions for the team, trying to be an initiator,” Murray-Boyles said. 

He’ll have the green light. 

“I told him I want him to have six or seven turnovers a game,” said Simovic. “It’s Summer League. No one worries about that. If we win one game or four games, no one remembers. If he improves, that’s the main thing for us.”

There has been a lot of work on Murray-Boyles’ shooting, as well, and Simovic – whose regular-season role is as the Raptors’ lead development coach – is optimistic that he will eventually emerge as a reliable catch-and-shoot threat from beyond the three-point line, though he cautions it’s a lot to expect in one five-month off-season. 

It’s all about adding to the toolbox of a player who has shown himself so valuable to how the Raptors want to play that they need to find ways to have him on the floor as much as they can. 

“He still has that dunker spot and sets screens, playing five like he did last year when he made a huge jump,” said Simovic. “Now this year we’re gonna have that in our pocket. Let’s add more to his game, offensively and defensively.”

The Raptors had a closed scrimmage against the Orlando Magic’s Summer League team on Wednesday morning and Murray-Boyles got a dress rehearsal for what the Raptors have planned for him in Las Vegas and beyond. 

“He ran pick-and-roll for the first time today, having the ball in his hand, attacking, making decisions that type of stuff,” said Simovic. “So it’s a lot of work. It’s a process. It’s not going to be like, you click, you know, snap fingers and everything’s gonna be there, but he’s doing a pretty good job, to be honest.”

After a few weeks decompressing at home and enjoying some comfort food, the focus has shifted to getting Murray-Boyles comfortable being uncomfortable. 

If it works out as planned, the Raptors’ opponents will be the ones feeling uncomfortable once the regular season rolls around.

1. Changes on the bench: While head coach Darko Rajakovic and his staff got four-year contract extensions earlier this month, which will take them through the 2030-31 season, there will be some changes for the first time since Rajakovic was hired three years ago. Per a league source, the expectation is that the Raptors will hire Stephen Silas as an assistant coach for next season. Silas started his NBA coaching career in 2001, working for his father, longtime head coach Paul Silas. He has also worked with Larry Brown, Don Nelson and Rick Carlisle and was head coach of the Houston Rockets for three seasons. Most recently, he has been head coach of Team USA during FIBA World Cup qualifying. Former Raptors assistant Mike Batiste has taken a lead assistant role with Panathinaikos, his old Euro League club. Also not returning is James Wade, who was a front-of-the-bench assistant for Rajakovic’s first three seasons in Toronto after a stellar run as a head coach and general manager with the Chicago Sky of the WNBA. 

2. CMB on OG: Murray-Boyles watched the NBA Finals carefully, and Raptors fans will doubtless be thrilled about one of his takeaways from the New York Knicks’ dominant run to their first title in 53 seasons. That OG Anunoby guy?  He can play. “He was the X-factor, he made the difference in so many games. He doesn’t trash talk or anything like that, he had a goal in mind and he did what was necessary to win,” said Murray-Boyles of the former Raptor, who emerged as Jalen Brunson’s co-star, combining his versatile, lockdown defence with ultra-efficient offence as Anunoby averaged 21.2 points, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals while shooting 55.2 per cent from the floor and 50 per cent from three in five games against the Spurs. “I feel like that is the definition of a really, really great player,” said Murray-Boyles. “It was really good to watch, especially for me, being a young guy, I feel like every young guy should watch that. That’s what you need to be trying to model yourself after, as somebody that’s trying to do the right things at all times.”

3. CMB on Kawhi Leonard: The fine details of the trade bringing Leonard back to Toronto are still being worked through, with the expectation that it could take until next week until it’s completely nailed down, but that hasn’t prevented Murray-Boyles from looking forward to the opportunity to play alongside the future hall-of-famer this season: “Obviously not many players in my position get to watch somebody as good as him, somebody as poised as him, so it’s going to be really good for I think everybody,” he said. “Even the guys that’s been on the team for three plus years already, like Scottie, It’s going to be good for everybody to watch him, because he’s had so much experience in the league. I think it’s going to benefit us in really good ways.” His thoughts on what a three-headed defensive monster featuring himself, Scottie Barnes and Leonard might mean for other teams? “Chaos.”