LAS VEGAS — There’s black tape on Collin Murray-Boyles’ left hand again.After spending so much of last year with his thumb wrapped up, the result of spraining it against Miami around Christmas and repeatedly aggravating it afterward, the protection has now migrated to his index finger. He injured it during a scrimmage two days before the Las Vegas Summer League, when he was supposed to be the focal point of the Toronto Raptors’ squad. Instead, he missed the first three games.Maybe Murray-Boyles, named All-Rookie Second Team last year, should simply stop using his hands.“Impossible,” Murray-Boyles shoots back.Well, yes, obviously. While Murray-Boyles does plenty with his burly body, those hands are pretty important for hoovering up rebounds, deflecting passes, slinging dishes of his own and popping up floaters, which he seemingly developed overnight heading into last year’s playoffs. Regardless, Murray-Boyles should have a good feel for accomplishing the unlikely, as he was one of a handful of rookies who had massive, positive impacts in the playoffs last spring, along with San Antonio’s Dylan Harper and Philadelphia’s VJ Edgecombe.As a later pick — ninth in the 2025 draft — than those two, playing in a comparatively lower-profile NBA market, Murray-Boyles was perhaps the biggest surprise of the three in the playoffs. The Raptors didn’t make it out of the first round, but Murray-Boyles averaged 14.4 and 6.4 rebounds per game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, averaging more than a block and a steal per game in a series that went the distance. He played more than 27 minutes per game, up by nearly six minutes from the regular season.“One of the biggest compliments you can have as a rookie is to get recognition for contributing in a playoff series,” Murray-Boyles told The Athletic before the Raptors’ first summer league game. “A lot of rookies don’t get a chance to feel what it’s like to play in playoff games early on. Me being able to do that and also create an impact is just proof of the work I put in.”In the process, Murray-Boyles became a non-negotiable part of the Raptors’ future, and that means expanding how he plays.Coming into the draft, Murray-Boyles was largely a defensive prospect, with his offensive role unknown. In that sense, his rookie season was proof of concept. With Jakob Poeltl hampered by a back injury for the majority of the year, the Raptors used Murray-Boyles as a small-ball centre, often pairing him with Scottie Barnes to create a switch-heavy, chaos-inducing defensive identity. He was the rare rookie strong enough to deal with much older players but quick enough to hang in on the perimeter.Collin Murray-Boyles opened a lot of eyes with his postseason play with the Raptors. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)His contributions on offence were more surprising. His vision was perhaps his best trait with the ball, lending more credence to pre-draft comparisons to Draymond Green. When the thumb injury hit, he started flinging difficult passes from underneath the basket, generally with accuracy.All along, though, he was building toward becoming a scoring threat. That culminated in the playoffs, when he suddenly had that floater, plus a nice baseline push shot, to provide a release valve for Barnes that Poeltl was not able to produce.