The following is part of Raptors Republic’s series of pieces reviewing the season for the Toronto Raptors. You can find all the pieces in the series here.
Remember your first time listening to the Beach Boys? Or maybe the first watch of episode one of The Sopranos? That moment of discovery when Brian Wilson’s high tenor and falsetto effortlessly fluttered across the orchestral backdrop of “God Only Knows” or when Tony gleefully ran down Mahaffey to “I wonder why” by Dion and the Belmonts.
Ok, we’ve got something here.
(Maybe I’m projecting my own favourites onto you, the reader, here. But feel free to insert the introductory moments to your own favourites above.)
The Collin Murray-Boyles experience was similar. It was apparent immediately that the burly first-year forward was going to be a game-changer.
In an ascendant rookie season, Murray-Boyles overcame injury and inexperience to effectively manhandle the opposition and buoy the Toronto Raptors when they needed it most.
Raptors Republic was ahead of the curve on Murray-Boyles before the draft and was high on him entering the season. Still, not even the most astute analysts among us could have predicted the preposterous impact he had on winning out of the gate, or the shape that impact took.
It starts with his defence. Murray-Boyles had the greatest defensive season by a rookie in Raptors history — no small feat for a team that rostered a rookie OG Anunoby who effectively guarded LeBron James in 2017-18.
That’s a subjective statement, but Murray-Boyles’ defensive playmaking, versatility, and sheer forcefulness were objectively exceptional. His 1.9 stocks (steals plus blocks) per game ranked third among rookies. He went from bodying up the likes of Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama to hanging in with Tyrese Maxey and Donovan Mitchell on the perimeter. And he did it with a level of success and seamlessness that was truly astonishing.
And even more than the preternatural hands that earned him the nickname “Magneto” or the ability to guard one through five, it was Murray-Boyles’ physicality that best translated to the NBA.
From our Samson Folk during training camp:
When I asked how his teammates respond to his physicality:
“They can’t do nothing about it. Cause it’s legal. They’re gonna complain. They’re gonna get better and learn from it. That’s what I wanna do.”
Opposing players couldn’t do anything about the now 21-year-old’s brutish strength either. Now watch these steals.
He was straight up mauling dudes. Taking lunch money.
This extraordinary might meant that Murray-Boyles also had the requisite husk to hang in with opposing centres when Jakob Poeltl went down for a 29-game stretch mid-season. And it was a good thing he did because otherwise the Raptors would have been screwed. The Raptors grabbed a higher percentage of defensive rebounds, allowed fewer rim attempts and a lower field goal percentage on the ones they did with Murray-Boyles on the floor; even with him playing as a significantly undersized centre for the bulk of his minutes. His ability to live in both worlds — both bang with the bigs and be an elite mover on the perimeter — allowed the Raptors to use unique defensive coverages. His rookie season was unique overall.
“A lot of intangibles, a lot of things he does on a nightly basis, how competitive he is, how hard he plays, just gave us confidence from Day 1 that he was going to be important player in the rotation,” Darko Rajaković said at his season-end press conference.
“His development over the course of the season was outstanding. Just always being able to react to any challenge that was thrown his way was awesome.”
Rajaković also spoke about what he learned about who Murray-Boyles is as a person off the court when meeting his former prep school teacher in Utah.
“Getting to understand who he is as a person and what he’s about just made me fall in love with this guy,” Rajaković said. “He’s an amazing human being, just cares so much about everybody. He’s somebody that we absolutely love over here. So lucky to have him in our program.”
All told, his regular-season stats wound up at averages of 8.5 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.9 assists over 57 games, earning him second-team All-Rookie honours.
This is burying the lede a little, but maybe the most meaningful part of Murray-Boyles season came in the Raptors’ seven-game first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. His game reached a new, difficult-to-fathom height as the then 20-year-old owned decorated Cleveland bigs Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley in the paint. His numbers jumped to 14.4 points, 6.4 boards, 2.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks. A playoff riser. Plus, he was Toronto’s best defender aside from Scottie Barnes and was essential to the myriad ball-screen coverages they threw at Cleveland’s high-powered backcourt. They could not have effectively enacted the switch-to-blitz coverage that was instrumental in discombobulating Donovan Mitchell and James Harden without Murray-Boyles’ freakish ground coverage.
He set a playoff scoring record for a Raptors rookie with 22 points in their Game 3 win, had a 15-point, 10-board double-double as Toronto took Game 4, then helped put the Raptors in position for RJ Barrett’s shot in Game 6 with a 17-point, seven-rebound, five-stock effort. Murray-Boyles 73.8 percent shooting in the restricted area ranked fourth in the postseason (min 40 attempts).
To start the season, Murray-Boyles was slotted in with the wings/forwards at training camp, which tracked with his role in college, expectations, his skill set, and frankly, his physical proportions.
It took him only one game to find his footing. After looking awkward and putting up a zero in Game 1, Murray-Boyles went for 19 in Game 2. He also made six of his first 10 three-point attempts. The attempts petered out of the course of the season — he took only four over the final 16 games of the season and went 0-for-3 in the playoffs. But that was understandable, considering the thumb on his shooting hand appeared to be held on by tape.
He sustained thumb injuries twice, first on Dec. 15 against the Miami Heat and then again on Jan. 19 when Luka Doncic whacked the same thumb (CMB also blocked Luka three times in that game). It plagued him for the rest of the season.
Think about the way he battled through the pain to accomplish everything else — the Magneto hands, physical defence against bigger players, his deft scoring touch — and it only makes it that much more impressive.
When it comes to next steps for the offseason and beyond, Murray-Boyles accessing more of the driving game he possessed at South Carolina could add another dimension to his game as a scorer, outside of the duck-ins, rolling, cutting, and dunker-spot work he already thrived at. We already started to see him gain confidence getting downhill late in the season, and Rajaković spoke to its importance also.
“I think it’s very important for him to add a little bit of a face-up game,” Rajaković said. “So he can attack at the rim off the dribble, one two dribbles. He can come off DHOs, turn the corner.
“He’s not shying away from those moments, he’s not shying away from a challenge … The more we’re putting on his plate for his development he’s going to be more excited and he’s going to embrace that,” Rajaković added.
And while Murray-Boyles profiles as another non-shooter alongside all-star forward Scottie Barnes, the pair proved they can achieve unique success together as a vice-grip defensive unit whose additive strengths outweigh their weaknesses.
“I wonder what a team of 12 CMBs and Scotties would look like,” Rajaković joked, before adding: “I do think that those two compliment each other really well.”
Murray-Boyles was immensely important to the Raptors in his first NBA season and only stands to be even more important in the future. And the very best parts of the CMB experience lying undiscovered on the horizon is a truly exciting prospect.
