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BOSTON — Chris Boucher has it all figured out.
That’s how it appears from the outside, at least.
Fresh off a season mired by inconsistent playing time in Toronto, Boucher has quickly found a home in Boston, where he’s been pleasantly surprised by a plethora of great steak restaurants and Haitian food — two of his favorites.
I sat with Boucher for a lengthy conversation after the Boston Celtics’ third official day of training camp. He just finished getting up his post-practice three-pointers as assistant coaches DaSean Butler, Amile Jefferson, and Tyler Lashbrook rebounded, and preseason action was just a few days away.
For the last seven years, Boucher has lived in Toronto, a few hours west of his hometown of Montreal. With the Raptors, there have been some undeniable highs: a G League MVP and NBA championship in 2019, stretches where he became a core contributor in 2021 and 2022, and multiple seasons of sustained winning.
But for the last two years, Boucher saw an inconsistent role on a rebuilding Raptors team, only appearing in 50 of 82 games each season. When he played, he typically performed, last year averaging 10 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per night, while shooting 36.3% from beyond the arc (the second-best mark of his career).
But, though he embraced a leadership role with the Raptors, on-court opportunities were erratic. This offseason, the priority was to identify a team where he could contribute to winning.
“I wanted to be somewhere where they wanted me,” Boucher said, explaining that he recognized that he saw a chance to immediately contribute in Boston. “It’s a lot easier when you come on a team like this — where they’re like, ‘Okay, we know we need you.’”
Boucher doesn’t know exactly what his on-court role will entail this season. But he recognizes that with players like Jayson Tatum sidelined, and Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford donning new jerseys, there’s plenty that the Celtics will be missing on the court this season.
“I got a couple of their skills — if you put them all together,” Boucher said with a smile. “I got a couple of their skills.”
Boucher also knows that regardless of the minutes he plays or shots he takes, he’ll bring with him the same indefatigable energy he carried when he starred at the University of Oregon alongside now-Celtic teammate Payton Pritchard.
“I do remember one thing from college,” Pritchard told CelticsBlog last month. “He never gets tired.”
Boucher laughed when I asked him about that notion. He admitted that his resting heart rate is a striking 36 beats per minute, an astonishly-low number. (For reference, the resting heart rate for an average adult is between 60 and 100 beats).
Some of that is just genetics. But, over the past decade, he’s learned to push his workout to new bounds, conditioning his body each day to go harder than the one before.
“I’m always thinking about, like, ‘Okay, if I’m tired now, and I push through, that means the next time I get to that level, I won’t be tired,” Boucher said. “So I’m always pushing myself. When I work out, I try to not drink water, because I’m like, ‘Okay, well, if I could go through without water, then with water it’d be a lot easier. You can’t just go call a timeout to go get water.“
It’s that mindset that has propelled Boucher from an undrafted forward who missed his first year in the league recovering from an ACL tear, to a highly-effective rotation player who has been in the NBA nearly a decade.
In August, Boucher officially signed with the Celtics on a one-year, $3.3 million deal. Since then, he’s been locked in at the Auerbach Center, taking on difficult defensive assignments and getting up extra shots. Boston is a brand-new city, but preparing hard for an incoming NBA season is a familiar feeling.
“I’ve been doing this my whole career,” Boucher said.
But before training camp began, Boucher had an experience that made him feel even more confident he was in the right place.
Inside a special trip to Montreal with Joe Mazzulla
In September, Chris Boucher decided he wanted to get baptized before the season started.
“I’ve been thinking about it the whole year — I was supposed to do it last year, but it’s something that you have to be mentally ready for,” Boucher said. “So when I knew I was coming here and everything was going to change a little bit for me, it was like, ‘Okay, well, let me start the year the right way, get closer to God.’”
When Boucher shared with Joe Mazzulla that he was considering returning to his hometown in Montreal for the baptism, the Celtics’ head coach reacted viscerally.
“His eyes lit up,” Boucher recalled. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I want to come to that.’”
So, Mazzulla and assistant coach Amile Jefferson made the trip to Montreal in honor of Boucher’s special day, a gesture that meant a considerable amount. A few weeks later, he’s still processing its significance.
“I’ve been in the league for a long time, and to see a coach that wants to be there for certain events like that is really special,” Boucher said.
“I’ve been in this league for a long time,” he repeated. “It’s rare to see that.”
In practice, Mazzulla has often been hard on Boucher, as he is with most of the players. But, for a number of reasons, Boucher is receptive to criticism.
For one, the pair’s newly-formed off-court connection makes basketball critiques resonate even more deeply:
“When you’re on the court and he talks to you, and tells you stuff, it makes you see it as — you know what? He’s there for me,” Boucher said. “He wants me to get better.”
Boucher also noted that he’s been in the NBA for 8 seasons, and understands that when coaches are hard on players, it’s a sign of respect.
“The day that he’s gonna stop saying stuff to me, I’m gonna realize that, ‘Okay, I might be out of this place,’” Boucher said. “Coaches are pretty smart. If they don’t say nothing to you, then that means you’re probably out of there. They start talking to you, telling you stuff, then that means that, yes — they’re giving you shit. But they still need you.”
Boucher has been finding his footing at training camp
When Chris Boucher first signed with the Celtics in August, many presumed that he’d play more of a big-man role given the team’s dearth in the frontcourt. But, Boucher said that he views himself as a forward, and as such, he’s taken more wing responsibilities at training camp thus far.
“I’m guarding JB [Jaylen Brown], I’m guarding Derrick White, which is something that I always told myself I was able to do,” Boucher said. “I’ve never wanted to be labeled as a big man.”
At times, Boucher has been categorized as a center. But, at 6’9, he’s found that to be a bit limiting: “I feel like that kind of restricted me a little bit, just in the world of basketball, where they’re like, ‘Okay, well, he’s not big enough to be a center, but I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I’m fast enough to be playing a lot of different positions.”
As he acclimates to the Celtics, Mazzulla’s mentorship has been critical. Boucher said he’s used to a heavy focus on defense, having played under Nick Nurse in Toronto, but that there’s been an increased emphasis on shooting and racking up deflections in Boston.
“Joe is really helping me out,” Boucher said. “He’s giving me a lot of hints, but also giving me a lot of structure on what he wants me to do and play smart and make calculated gambles and all. And I think that’s something that the Celtics have been good at.”
Whether or not Boucher will sometimes find himself in starting lineup remains to be seen. He’s not too worried about contributing from the bench, something that he’s done for the vast majority of his NBA career.
“If I tell myself I’m gonna be the best bench player of the game, if they start me, then that’s great news,” Boucher said. “But knowing that you’re going to be the best at [coming off the bench] helps you not get discouraged.”
Boucher has witnessed lots of teammates get overly fixated on a prospective starting lineup role: “I’m not trying to be one of those persons. And it’s always worked out for me.”
As practice winds down, Mazzulla jokes around Boucher like an old friend. He’s one of a myriad of new faces at the Auerbach Center.
But, he seems right at home.
