Toronto Raptors: Evaluating CMB’s First Game
We need to talk about there’s one gentleman that didn’t get to play in the first game. He did get to play make his debut in a Raptors jersey, albeit a summer league Raptors jersey. Colin Murray Boils made his debut and I thought it was a good game from him. He didn’t start that way, but he definitely ended it that way. What did you see from uh CMBB that uh you know made you take notice? I think the defense was as advertised as expected. Um he got his hands on a lot of balls. He had what he did he have four blocks? I can’t remember. Or maybe he had four stocks. Four stocks. Yeah, he had a bunch of steals. I think he only had that one block. But um Right. Right. But defensive playmaking as was expected. I think he got clipped pretty hard. Like they clipped his airball three that he had. Yeah, he he shot it pretty long. But uh that that that I I I mean I had to react to that on on Twitter, but um yeah, I didn’t clip the um I didn’t clip the uh the the the airball, but I did clip the really good sequence where he got the block and then he went down to the other end and got the offensive put back dunk. That was a really really nice play that kind of made me take notice. And then the the really cool uh play here was the one that you were describing where he uh managed to get the steel and he hit the deck uh and then got it back to Jacobe Walter. He sort of passed it ahead. He has really good hands. That that’s pretty much it was actually AJ Lawson uh who who got the ball back and then got fouled on the other end. But um his hands are huge. His hands are amazing. And one of my favorite plays that I I saw was when they tried to pass the ball over his head and he just swatted it out of the air and then they got the uh the ball back. I thought that was a really cool play. It kind of reminded me of the play that you thought was the the best play that you saw the the highlight package from last episode. Yeah. His Yeah. His snatch deal. Yeah. uh very similar in that, you know, they think that they can get it because he’s so close the reaction time isn’t going to be quick enough to get the ball, but yeah, his reflexes. Wow. His anticipation is crazy. And it’s it it reminds me a lot of I don’t know how much Jamal Shed film like from college that you watched when we drafted him, but Shed did a lot of playing up on his man and reacting like in an instant to get steals and to get those like two hand swats and stuff. Same kind of reaction time except in a much bigger frame which I think is a lot more impressive and just like creating so much problems for the ball handler. He’s I after I think I don’t know if it was that play or the next, but basically whoever got the ball back in front of him might have been Wendell Moore Jr. or whoever it was, they they took two dribbles and passed it out. They were like, I’m not testing it. I’m not going to try to force a pass over him. They learned their lesson. And I think like that’s where he starts to really win minutes when he has fear struck into them of okay, I’m not even going to try to get past this guy because he’s going to make a defensive play. Yeah. Um I think that that’s definitely like he he has the size and the you know the the hands and the foot speed like he has all of the ingredients that you want from a defender. Maybe not like he doesn’t have center size, I would say, but he and he doesn’t have like like he has plus length like he’s got like a 7 foot wingspan, but it’s nothing like it’s not crazy like Herb Jones or or Scotty or whatever, but it’s still length and he still uses it quite well. Yeah, that’s the thing is that a lot of the time like you have to have the tools, but then again you have to know how to use the tools. And I feel like he has he has the tools to work with. They’re not the best tools, but he’s it’s not like he’s missing something where you’re like, “Okay, if he only had this or that, then he could do it.” He does have all of those ingredients. Um, yeah, the reflexes, hand eye coordination, those have stuck out to me, I think, and and the game sense. Uh, just the ability to utilize what he has. Um, so very impressed with that. And then one thing that showed up and they I unfortunately as I mentioned you can’t really get um the full game not highlights but the full game. So I wasn’t able to clip the uh the three that he made that didn’t count cuz he did swish like no rim right in a a a three-point um make. And the thing is is that it was too far out because he he stepped on the line and it it didn’t count, but he made the three. And you know, it counted as I said on Twitter, it counted in my heart. And really, that’s that’s all that that that matters. And and if you notice, his his first miss was long, right? And this is a problem that I don’t know if you noticed last season that Scotty Barnes really had with his shot is he shoots it long. he would hit more of these where he’s an extra step back. He was hitting a lot more because he’s shooting it strong every time. And I think maybe right now one of Colin’s issues is that he might be shooting it a bit strong. So being a step back might actually work for him. Just not too far of a step back that it’s out of bounds. Yeah. But you know mainly I think his issue with shooting is it’s if you watch him take 10 shots, you kind of watch him take seven different shots. the the consistency of the form has to be there. I don’t see a consistent broken part of it necessarily, but it’s hard to dial your shot in to be consistent, and that’s really what it’s going to take to get to where they need him to be as a shooter. But it was definitely nice to see and probably really nice for him mentally. you know, you know, a player needs to see that go in uh to have that mental impact on that’s why everybody takes a shot after the buzzer when they when they can to try to see it go in or a timeout everything, right? Yeah. There it’s all experiential. Yeah. It’s about um having the reps, having the ability like the confidence, all of that stuff blends together. And I’m not displeased by the look of the shot. Obviously, the airball is not what you want to see, and that’s the one thing that that people will kind of remember about his shooting at least. And uh yeah, nobody nobody clipped the uh the out-of- bounds shot, unfortunately. No. Boo. Okay. Well, I mean, I I was impressed. I think as advertised, he is a super super defender. Um a a really impactful defender, really smart player. uh the ability. Also, another thing, we we’ll mention this quickly. He did have a lot of rebounds in this game. He had some offensive rebounds. Uh he has a nose for the ball. I think that when you have the size, you have the motor and um you have the smarts and kind of like the ability to read a game, you you’re going to know where to go, how to get to the to the ball, and you’re going to beat other people to to the glass. And he did that. His rebounding was good. He got seven rebounds in that game. Um I I I am just thinking that right now at least for next season is that we’re going to be looking at just a a a good role player. I think I think that that’s a good way to earn minutes. I think that that’s a way to get on the coach’s good side is show that you’re willing to do the non-scoring stuff and then as you earn minutes, you gain the trust of your teammates and coach, you’re going to be able to get reps and the ability to get shots up. You know, I’m sure that there will be a lot of plays where they kick the ball to him and he’s going to be able to shoot the ball. I’m sure there’s going to be plays where he’s able to handle the ball, show that off. Oh, and that reminds me, um, he had a another thing that I wasn’t able to clip just because again, no full game, uh, you know, broadcast. He had a really nice dribble sequence in the open court. So, he’s kind of like a a big size, like a larger forward. And so I think that the when you just glance at him, you’re going to think, “Oh, there’s a big bringing the ball up the floor. Time cookies, right? Time to grab the ball from this guy. It’s going to be easy.” And what I saw from him was a really nice behind the back dribble to um his a guy tried to grab a steel off of him, went right past him, and he was able to get into the lane. It was like a really, really, really nice sequence. Um, so that is another thing that I think is is he’s going to be able to show off is a very good handle for a player his size. So, just thought I’d mention that cuz that was something that I saw from him last game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s very promising cuz when you look at Scotty Barnes’s rookie season, once teams started to recognize that he couldn’t really shoot that much, they started to play drop on him like five, six feet back. And he didn’t trust his handle enough to go, “Okay, I’m going to take it into the paint.” I think Colin’s a different story. He trusts his handle decently, right? So, he’s not afraid to go face up. If he gets a mismatch with a a guard, he’s going to be able to bully them probably to the net. And if he gets a mismatch with a big, as long as it’s not somebody freakish like Moi Moy or Jiren Jackson Jr., he’ll be able to probably blow past them to an extent to maybe get a shot. But you’re right, being a super role player should be his role. You’ve got other guys on the bench, like if Grady’s coming off the bench, he’s going to be a guy that’s looked at more for scoring. Sandro on the bench, he’s going to be looked at more for shooting. the offense won’t necessarily be suffering if you’re not getting a ton of shots from CMBB in his rookie season. So again, playing that Super Bowl role player, hitting the glass, like if I remember correctly, he was maybe fifth in the SEC in rebounds. He’s an incredible rebounder. Yeah. And that’s a a plus skill that he’ll be able to add to the unit. His defense will be a plus skill. I think he could be a really plus player off the bench without a massive scoring impact. And I think a game like this, eight point a game, maybe 10 point a game, maybe something that we should be expecting from him. Yeah. As long as he gets consistent minutes. Yeah. And the road to that is is very easy. Um well, I mean, it’s not easy, but it’s it’s simple. You you got to play defense, you got to do all the, you know, he’s good at and used to. So, yeah, for him it’s pretty straightforward. It’s kind of just be you and you’ll get minutes.
Steve and Julian take an in-depth look at Collin Murray-Boyles’ first Summer League game!
