Collin Murray-Boyles enters his second season with the Raptors carrying a different kind of weight. After a strong rookie year, the expectations are bigger now, and so is the responsibility. Toronto is counting on him to anchor the bench as its sixth man, with third-year guards Jamal Shead and Ja’Kobe Walter lined up behind him for major minutes.
That role could put Murray-Boyles in the Sixth Man of the Year mix if a few things break right. The biggest one starts with the team.
Bench production only goes so far without wins to match it, and the recent history of the award backs that up. The last five winners - Keldon Johnson, Payton Pritchard, Naz Reid, Malcolm Brogdon, and Tyler Herro - all came from teams that finished in the top three in their conference.
The other piece is offense. Murray-Boyles already brings defensive impact and rebounding, but for his candidacy to really take off, his scoring has to jump enough to stand out.
That matters because the award tends to reward players whose numbers jump off the page. Each of the last five winners finished at least seventh in total points off the bench, and Reid was the clear exception.
Johnson, Pritchard, Brogdon and Herro all ended the regular season third or better in that category.
There’s reason to think Murray-Boyles can make that kind of leap. The playoffs offered a first look at him in a bigger role, and even in a seven-game sample, he held up on both ends.
He also gets an offseason to keep building out his offense. Defenses will be more keyed in on him now, but the idea of a step forward is hardly far-fetched.
ESPN’s NBA Summer Forecast currently has Alex Caruso, Dylan Harper, Ajay Mitchell and Reed Sheppard as the leading names in the Sixth Man of the Year race, but there’s still a long way to go before that picture is set.
If Murray-Boyles does force his way into the conversation, it would be a notable moment for Toronto. The Raptors haven’t had a true Sixth Man of the Year contender in some time. Fred VanVleet finished third in voting in 2018, behind Lou Williams and Eric Gordon, and Williams remains the only Raptor to actually win the award, taking it in 2015 while playing in Toronto.
Last season, Sandro Mamukelashvili received three of the possible 500 points in the voting, Shead got one, and Chris Boucher finished eighth in 2021.
In Other News...
Clippers Kawhi Investigation Just Reached A Stage Ballmer Cant Ignore
The NBAs investigation into possible salary cap circumvention involving Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard has moved into a more serious phase, with investigators now having presented initial findings, according to ESPNs Ramona Shelburne. What happens next is likely to matter well beyond Los Angeles, because any final conclusion in a case this high-profile could ripple through the league and, as expected, invite appeals and possibly arbitration involving the players union.
For Toronto, the larger backdrop is the still-pending trade completion tied to Leonard, a reminder that this saga remains tangled up in old roster business even as the league digs into what happened behind the scenes. The conversations now under way are centered on Ballmer and his lawyers, and the focus appears to be less about a smoking gun than about how the Clippers owner handled oversight, leaving the biggest question hanging over what the NBA ultimately decides to do with the findings. [Read more 🡒]
Raptors Frontcourt Has One Quiet Question That Could Matter A Lot
Sandro Mamukelashvili quietly gave the Raptors something they do not always have in the frontcourt last season: a big man who could stretch the floor without hurting the rest of the spacing. He was a useful part of that mix, combining a dependable outside shot with enough defensive function to stay in the conversation, and then he moved on in free agency. That leaves Toronto looking for a similar kind of fit rather than just another body, which is why rookie Allen Graves has become an interesting subplot as camp and the season approach.
Graves brings the right kind of rsum for the job, at least on paper. He showed real touch in college and carried that into summer league, and the Raptors will be watching to see whether his shooting translates against NBA defenders while he handles the other end well enough to stay on the floor. If he can do both, it would give Toronto another option in a frontcourt that could use one more reliable spacer, and it could shape how the rotation settles in early this season. [Read more 🡒]
Raptors Award Buzz Means One Thing About This Teams Next Step
The Raptors are already being sized up for the kind of award chatter that tends to follow a team on the rise, with 2026-27 projections putting Darko Rajakovic, Scottie Barnes and Cam Murray-Boyles in the mix for major individual honors. For Toronto, that kind of buzz says as much about the direction of the program as it does about any one player, because those races usually hinge on team success, role clarity and how much a young core keeps growing together.
Rajakovics profile is the clearest sign that voters are starting to notice the bigger picture, while Barnes remains the kind of defensive force who can enter the Defensive Player of the Year conversation if the Raptors keep stacking wins. Murray-Boyles adds another layer because his potential sixth-man case depends on Toronto leaning into a deeper rotation and continuing to trust his impact off the bench, which is exactly the sort of next step the franchise has been building toward. [Read more 🡒]