Opportunity came calling and Chris Boucher answered on the first ring.

And as the opportunity has grown, so too has Boucher’s ability to ramp up his game and ensure his chance isn’t wasted.

In a Raptors’ season that has started off just about as poorly as it possibly could from a record standpoint, Boucher has been one of the most consistent answers to the holes that have sprung up in Nick Nurse’s rotation.

Need a big to handle some minutes in the middle and protect the rim? Boucher can do it.

Need an energy boost off the bench? Boucher can provide it.

Need some consistent finishing ability around the rim? Yup, Boucher is your man.

It has been quite a jump for the Saint Lucia-born, Canadian-raised centre even from the beginning of last season.

Just a season ago Boucher logged exactly 11 games of 20 minutes or more.

Already this season that is just 10 games old, Boucher has surpassed 20 minutes seven times.

And the workload projects to get larger rather than smaller.

In the wake of the departures of both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, Boucher landed himself a lucrative deal worth $13.5-million over two years.

The deal raised a few eyebrows given Boucher was just starting to show what he was capable of and the fact that the Raptors had gone out and signed both Aron Baynes and Alex Len after the departures.

Through 10 games, Boucher hasn’t just outplayed the two newcomers, he’s been the lone big to have an impact for the team.

To date, Nurse has resisted the temptation to start his long Canadian but it really feels like it’s only a matter of time before he does.

Baynes started the first seven but has not seen the floor in the past three. Len has two starts and the only other game saw Nurse go extremely small without a traditional centre in the starting lineup.

Boucher may not have started to date but he’s easily been the busiest and most effective centre on the roster. He’s averaging just over 22 minutes a night and contributing in every area with 14.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and a team best and tied for second best in the NBA 2.6 blocks a game.

Nurse, who has been switching up the starting five on a nightly basis lately in search of the best possible group has no complaints with what he has got from Boucher to date.

“He’s obviously played very well, which is why he started the second half the other day (in Portland), played a 14-minute straight run off the bench in the first half,” Nurse said. “He’s virtually playing starter minutes off the bench so, again, it’s kinda like you get your chance, you make the most of it, that chance gets lengthened is the way we like to usually do things with guys off the bench. But just opportunity, gaining more court time and gaining more experience with every rep up and down the floor.”

Boucher worked on his body extensively during the break between the shutdown of the NBA last March and the resumption in the Bubble in Orlando in July adding somewhere between 12 and 15 pounds of bulk.

But as his long-time trainer and conditioner and workout partner Ibrahim Appiah says, the goal isn’t as much about bulk as it is adding strength.

Appiah, who met Boucher when he was brought to his basketball Academy in Alma, Quebec (since moved to Thetford) some nine years ago, has been with him ever since and has heard all the criticisms of Boucher’s slight frame. Boucher stretches 200 pounds over his 6-foot-10 frame and while it can make for some real mismatches when he comes up against some of the heavier centres in the league, Appiah has no concerns about his man winning that battle over the length of a game.

“You can’t hit what you can’t catch,” Appiah says of Boucher.

“He might get knocked down the first couple of times down the floor but you know Chris, he gets right back up and then (his defender) is saying what am I going to do to stop him now?”

Appiah knows Boucher and his game as well as anyone on earth. Boucher will tell you as much.

His own playing career ended prematurely 10 years ago at High Point University with injury.

Now he works with some of Quebec’s top basketball imports like Boucher or Syracuse Orangmen forward Quincy Guerrier.

Guerrier, like Boucher in the NBA, is rounding into form nicely in Jim Boeheim’s rotation. He’s averaging 16.4 points and 9.5 rebounds over 10 games.

Appiah has even put the two players together in an effort to have Boucher show Guerrier the importance of having a short memory in the game so any obstacles are overcome and left in the past allowing confidence to remain high.

It’s a trait that has served Boucher well in his journey to the NBA and can certainly help Guerrier.

Appiah has been huge for Boucher but there are others deserving of credit as well for this development.

When Boucher is with the team he is working with Raptors’ assistant coach Jim Sann, a man he gives plenty of credit to. When the team is off, it’s Appiah who oversees his workouts and development.

Both men have been instrumental in Boucher’s rapid rise from end of the bench cheerleader to a guy pulling down 25 minutes a night.

Appiah calls the constant cloud of questions about Boucher’s size “a blessing” because he knows it keeps Boucher hungry and motivated to prove people wrong.

He believes over time Boucher will bulk up but he’s very conscious of making sure that happens over an extended period of time and at never at the expense of his speed which is what make Boucher stand apart from a lot of his contemporaries.

“We don’t want him gaining 30 pounds just to be able to say ‘Look, I’ve put on 30 pounds,” Appiah says.

“We want him to put on that weight gradually so he can still be the player he was before added it,’ he said.

Appiah says when he does add that bulk — it will come over an off-season when it can be more properly controlled — it’s going to come with more strength and Boucher is going to be “scary” when it happens.

n the meantime the goal is to learn as much as humanly possible about the NBA game and become as comfortable as possible in whatever game situation comes up.

Appiah says he’s already seeing Boucher’s improved game open things up for his teammates. He noticed the past couple of games teams were reluctant to double Pascal Siakam giving the Raptors’ all-star more room to operate because they couldn’t leave Boucher.

Boucher spends a lot of time watching game film and did so even when he wasn’t getting a lot of minutes. The difference is now when he watches film he’s able to watch and critique his own play and determine whether he made the proper read on that specific play or whether the next time he might make a different choice.

Appiah keeps a close eye on Boucher. He’s with him right now in Tampa but at some point he’ll be up to Syracuse to check on Guerrier who is having his own breakout year there.

Boucher meanwhile will continue with his locked-in approach to getting better.

He turned 28 while the team was on the just completed road trip. Rather than celebrate his birthday on the road he waited for the off day when the team got back to Tampa not wanting to detract from his study of the game

Not necessarily a big sacrifice but another indication that Boucher isn’t satisfied with his current level. He wants to take his game to the next level and is willing to do what it takes to get there.

And people are taking notice.

“He blocks shots, he’s doing that at a pretty high level, he plays hard, runs hard, brings speed and energy, he’s doing that,” Nurse said. “Obviously he’s shooting the ball well and he’s finishing around the rim at a decent clip as well. So all the kind of, I would say, skills that he has and things that he does, he’s doing all four, five of them at a pretty high level.”
If anything, the opportunity Boucher’s getting now is only going to grow.

mganter@postmedia.com