Lowry paying for 10 years of wear and tear on wrist
MIAMI — Kyle Lowry confirmed something we suspected since he underwent surgery. The wrist problem that eventually resulted in surgery was not something that happened at once.
It was a problem he had been dealing with over time and it got to the point where he was no longer able to be effective playing.
He banged it again on the Wednesday night heading into the all-star break but it wasn’t something he hadn’t done plenty of times before that.
“From what I’ve been told, it’s a 10-year process,” Lowry said. “It’s a long process of wear and tear and bumping and grinding, and hitting guys. It’s a little bit of wear and tear. It was just at the point where it got a little bit worse to the point where I couldn’t play. If it’s that serious for me, I knew it was something that needed to be checked on.”
Lowry still went to the all-star game, took part in the three-point shooting contest and, yes, even got in a game of golf after that Charlotte game. Lowry took some heat from the fan base for that, but it had absolutely no effect on him.
“I didn’t pay no attention to it to be honest,” Lowry said. “I enjoyed my all-star weekend. If anybody had any problem with it, come say it to my face. That’s how I feel.”
Lowry sees no reason there should be a backlash.
“I didn’t pay attention to people,” he said. “Whatever was said — I know how I felt about it and I know what I said about it. I never had any regrets on anything on anything I do. I go about and do everything I can and I feel whole-heartedly good about every decision I’ve made in my life.”
Lowry says he has an idea of when he would like to be back in order to be at his best for when the playoffs roll around, but he wasn’t willing to share that date with the writers and broadcasters on hand.
“I have — not a target date — but I know what I would like to do,” Lowry said. “Hopefully we can get it done and we’ll go from there. For me it’s making sure I’m completely healthy. I don’t want to have to be not full Kyle going into any situation. I want to be able to go out and play and not have any hold-back.”
The Raptors are a lesser team without Lowry in the fold. Yes, the team is 4-2 so far in his absence but DeMar DeRozan has had to be almost super-human in a handful of those games to get to that record.
When teams lock in on him the way the Milwaukee Bucks did on Saturday, scoring becomes extremely tough for the Raptors.
These two days of practice in Miami, a mini-training camp coach Dwane Casey is calling it, will allow the Raptors to work finding other sources of offence so teams zero in on DeRozan at their own peril.
Lowry believes it would be a mistake to try to shoehorn one guy into that role of secondary scorer.
“We have a bunch of options, Jonas Valanciunas, Serge Ibaka you could bring Freddy VanVleet in, Delon’s doing a good job of getting into the paint, Cory’s scoring well. It’s not about having options now, it’s a collective effort. DeMar is the guy ... but it’s about having a collective effort to be a second option.”
For his part Lowry is thrilled with what the Raptors have been able to accomplish in his absence.
“They’re doing an unbelievable job, I don’t know what their record is but I’m proud of this team and I think they’ll continue to get better, they’ll continue to get wins while I’m out,” Lowry predicted. “Unfortunately I’m not there to take a little bit of the burden off DeMar, Cory (Joseph) and the guys but Delon (Wright), Fred (VanVleet), they’re coming in and taking up the challenge.
Lowry made the decision to travel with the team and be on the bench throughout his absence because he still believes he can help.
Behind the scenes Lowry is doing what he can to speed the healing process and get back as soon as possible.
“I just basically got to rehab it, get it stronger, full extension,” Lowry said. “Right now there’s still some swelling in there, still some inflammation in there. It’s just a basic rehab, get it stronger get full that flexibility back and do as much as I can tolerate painwise. Still I’m going to see my doctor in another week. I’m not even a week out from surgery. Whatever the progress is, I’m optimistic.”
Lowry knows enough about coming back from injury and in this case surgery that rushing the process is probably the wrong tact.
He’s able to run and keep his cardio at a decent level, but the wrist basically just needs time to recover from the surgery.
In the meantime he’ll make himself useful staying in the ear of young point guards Delon Wright and Fred VanVleet.
“I talk to Freddy all game, I know he’s probably tired of me talking to him,” Lowry said. “I talk to him all game and Delon and I tell those guys, you see certain situations, you’ve got to know what’s going on, what you’re needed to do. I’ve been in their positions before, you’ve got to watch the game and see what needs to be done. Change of pace, defence, offensively, you have to be able to come in and affect the game … that game that’s going on. New Orleans game if you need to pick up full court or you need get in the paint a little bit more or you need to get Jonas or Serge a shot, those types of things I talk to them about.”
The help is nice and as Wright says always welcome but the biggest help Lowry can be to this team is when he’s on the floor directing the traffic himself.
And it’s going to be a few weeks before we see that.