When they took their turns speaking with reporters, Chris Boucher and Aron Baynes were about 3,500 kilometres apart. A hectic free agent market has created an opportunity for both big men this season that might measure greater than the distance between them.
Boucher, in Toronto and Baynes, in Phoenix, had their multi-year deals made official on Wednesday. In Boucher’s case, the 27-year-old has shown potential and room for growth in the Raptors’ system over the last two years, coming into games deep off of the bench. Baynes, 33, has built an eight-year NBA career in that role. Both have shown glimpses of being able to offer more and with Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol leaving in free agency, you can almost hear opportunity knocking on the hardwood for both of them.