Raptors keeping Lowry, Ibaka
Reports say deals are for three years, total $165 million.
Point guard Kyle Lowry said he wants to finish what he started in Toronto.
Lowry announced on the Players’ Tribune site Sunday that he will re-sign with the Raptors. Reports indicated Lowry will sign a three-year deal worth $100 million.
“It was up to me to decide whether this thing we have — is it worth sticking around for, and running it back again, and seeing if we can take that next step?” Lowry wrote. “And like I said — to me, that was an easy decision. The answer is yes.”
The three-time All-Star averaged 22.4 points and 7.0 assists last season for the Raptors, who also struck a deal to retain forward Serge Ibaka earlier Sunday.
“If you’re looking for people to believe in — choose the people who believed in you first,” Lowry wrote. “And if you start something? Man, you finish it.”
So Toronto’s backcourt is set for at least the next three years, after shooting guard DeMar DeRozan got a fiveyear deal worth $139 million last summer.
Lowry was one of the most-coveted point guards on the market this summer, perhaps only behind Golden State’s Stephen Curry. And he’s going back to a team that has posted consecutive 50-win seasons and reached the playoffs in each of the last four years.
“I’m coming back to Toronto because my heart is telling me that it’s home,” said Lowry, noting that he still hasn’t had poutine — a popular dish in Canada.
When Toronto got Ibaka before the trade deadline last season, the Raptors made clear they had no intentions of letting him walk away this summer in free agency.
Now that’s been proven. Ibaka agreed to terms on a three-year contract reportedly worth $65 million.
Ibaka, 27, was traded to Toronto from Orlando late last season. He averaged 14.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in 23 games with the Raptors.
Cavaliers: Shooting guard Kyle Korver will return after agreeing on a three-year, $22 million contract. Korver, 36, led the league in 3-point percentage (.451) last season.
Warriors: Fresh off his first career championship, David West will return for what is expected to be his final NBA season. Andre Iguodala, the 2015 NBA Finals MVP, also said late Saturday that he would return to the Warriors.
Rockets: Houston agreed with Nene on a three-year deal worth $11 million, a day after an initial agreement fell apart because it violated rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and former Toronto forward P.J. Tucker agreed to a four-year, $32 million deal.
76ers: Philadelphia agreed on a one-year, $11 million contract with forward Amir Johnson, who spent the last two seasons with Boston.
Timberwolves: Taj Gibson, formerly of Chicago and Oklahoma City, agreed on a two-year, $28 million deal.
Wizards: A two-year deal was reached with shooting guard Jodie Meeks, previously with Orlando.
Etc.: Darrall Imhoff, a former University of California and U.S. Olympic champion center who played 12 seasons in the NBA, died in Bend, Ore., at 78 of a heart attack, the Portland Trail Blazers said.