After whiffing on Mark Williams over the weekend due to a failed physical, it’s reasonable to assume the Los Angeles Lakers will scour the buyout market for a competent forward or center to pair with Jaxson Hayes.
While the options aren’t captivating, the Lakers could target a two-time NBA champion forward playing well with the Toronto Raptors this season.
“The second place they (Lakers) could look is the buyout market, and that is obviously much more speculative and frankly gets extremely narrow unless we get a couple of surprises,” The Athletic’s Jovan Buha and Sam Vecenie wrote Monday.
“Boucher, who is averaging 10.5 points and 4.3 rebounds, is next. He’s a good shooter with length on defense but is quite skinny. Toronto Raptors general manager Bobby Webster has said that he doesn’t anticipate buying out Boucher.”
Boucher signed a two-way contract with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 after going undrafted in that year’s draft.
Unfortunately, Boucher was waived by the franchise after one season but walked away with an NBA championship thanks to the Warriors’ unstoppable trio of Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson.
The Oregon product signed with Toronto during the 2018 offseason and immediately achieved high-level team success.
The Kawhi Leonard-led Raptors finished the regular season with a remarkable 58-24 record and impressively defeated the Warriors in a captivating six-game NBA finals series.
Boucher’s contributions weren’t game-changing, but it’s fair to say the 32-year-old veteran is finally starting to find his footing in the big leagues.
Although the Raptors are playing below-average basketball this season, Boucher’s ability to hit three-point jumpers at a respectable clip, handle the ball on the perimeter, finish in transition, and remain active defensively has been exhibited this year.
Boucher averages over nine points per game on 50% field goal shooting and 37.1% three-point shooting in 45 contests.
There’s a good chance the 2019 NBA G League MVP will stay put in Toronto, but considering the Lakers need additional frontcourt assistance, they should hope the Raptors buy him out soon.
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