LAS VEGAS – Collin Murray-Boyles' first priority following his highly successful rookie season was to do nothing. No trips. No celebrations. No shopping sprees. 

He went home to Columbia, S.C. “Home was the trip,” said Murray-Boyles. It was his first true break in nearly two years, pre-dating his second season at the University of South Carolina. He slept in a bit. He hit some of his preferred breakfast nooks around town. “We got good spots in Columbia.” He ate his mom’s cooking: Oxtail stew, spaghetti with meat sauce, and various soul-food specialties. 

And if it doesn’t conform precisely to the letter of an elite athlete’s diet? Well, sometimes you just have to be comfortable.

“Good home cooking,” said Murray-Boyles. “It's not supposed to be the healthiest. Yeah, it's supposed to feel like home.”

In short order, work came calling, bringing Murray-Boyles to Las Vegas, where he heads the Raptors' entry in the NBA Summer League, which tips off this week. 

If his brief post-season pause was about being comfortable and enjoying the simplicity of sleeping in your own bed and eating your mom’s cooking, the weeks since have been about getting Murray-Boyles out of his basketball comfort zone.

There are plenty of things the Raptors and Murray-Boyles have been working on as they look toward a second season everyone hopes will build on his first, where the No. 9 pick in the NBA Draft earned all-rookie honours and, more importantly, showed through the regular season and especially the playoffs that he can make winning plays in volume. Steals, deflections and blocked shots on defence, coupled with offensive rebounds, tough finishes and smart ball movement on the offensive end. 

But the real goal can be summed up in the most basic measure of all: minutes played. 

“We need him to play a lot for us,” says Raptors assistant coach Ivo Simovic, who is the head coach for the team’s entry in the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League, with the Raptors' first game coming Friday on campus at UNLV. “He needs to be able to play with Kawhi (Leonard), with Scottie, with Jak (Poeltl), with all those guys.........

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