The Toronto Raptors have found another foundational piece in their ongoing rebuild, with forward Collin Murray-Boyles being officially named to the NBA’s All-Rookie second team on Wednesday night.
The No. 9 overall pick in the 2025 draft becomes the 13th player in franchise history to receive all-rookie honors and the first since the arrival of Scottie Barnes in 2021-22. The recognition serves as a well-deserved victory lap for a player who, while solid throughout the regular season, elevated his game into another stratosphere when the lights were brightest in the postseason.
The Playoffs: Where the Rookie Became a Factor
While his regular-season stats of 8.5 points and 5.0 rebounds across 57 games were impressive for a debut campaign, it was Murray-Boyles’ composure during the Raptors’ gritty seven-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers that truly captured the league’s attention.
The South Carolina native transformed into a postseason force, posting numbers that defied his status as a rookie:
- Points per game: 14.4
- Rebounds per game: 6.4
- Field Goal Percentage: An incredible 65.6%, leading all performers in the 2026 postseason.
His ability to operate at such high efficiency while matching the physicality of a seasoned playoff opponent like Cleveland turned him from a rotational prospect into one of Toronto’s most trusted options down the stretch.
The “Helluva Defender” Stamp of Approval
Beyond the box score, Murray-Boyles has earned the highest form of praise in the NBA: the trust of his franchise cornerstone, Scottie Barnes. Throughout the playoff run, Barnes was vocal about the rookie’s defensive impact, noting that the team’s overall defensive rating improved whenever Murray-Boyles was on the floor.
”We have the utmost trust in him,” Barnes remarked to the Toronto Sun during the series. “He guarded me all pre-season, and I know how well he guards… he’s an amazing defender.”
As a rookie, Murray-Boyles demonstrated defensive instincts rare for his age, ranking fourth among his rookie peers in blocks per game (0.93) and eighth in steals (0.91).
A New Era for the Raptors
The All-Rookie second team selection places Murray-Boyles in elite company. He joins a list of high-impact newcomers from the 2025 draft class, including first-team standouts Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and San Antonio’s playoff-proven star, Dylan Harper.
For Masai Ujiri and the Raptors’ front office, the development of Murray-Boyles represents a massive win. In a season defined by organizational transition, finding a reliable, two-way forward who can contribute high-level minutes in a Game 7 environment is the exact type of “value find” the Raptors have built their championship pedigree upon.
With the rookie now established as a core rotation piece, Toronto enters the offseason with a clear message to the rest of the Eastern Conference: the foundation is young, the experience is growing, and in Collin Murray-Boyles, they have a future star who is only just getting started.
