Raptors reward Lowry with four-year deal
TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors’ season had just ended with a heartbreaking one-point loss to the Brooklyn Nets, and Kyle Lowry was making his agent happy. While he expressed his love for Toronto, the city where he had blossomed into a high-level point guard after years of injuries and clashing with coaches about his role, Lowry said that he had not even begun to think of himself as a free agent. Buy some time, and do not surrender any leverage in negotiations by trying to appease the media.
DeMar DeRozan offered Andy Miller, Lowry’s agent, no help. When asked if he was worried, he opted for a grin as wide as the Mississippi. “No, no, no,” He said. Why not? “Because.”
There was no mention of Lowry needing to do what is best for Lowry, the usual chorus when players are asked about other players’ contracts. Beyond teammates, they belong to the same union, after all. And as we are always reminded at this time of year, basketball is just a business. However, perhaps Lowry’s retort was all we needed to know.
Forget the suitors who might be able to offer a more immediate path to a championship — Houston, which had offered him a deal, or Miami, which had expressed interest — and forget the allure of playing for the Lakers in Kobe Bryant’s last days. Lowry agreed to sign a four-year, US$48-million contract to stay put. It might be more than the Raptors expected to pay Lowry during the season, but compared to the first two days of free agency, where excesses were spent on decidedly marginal players, it is a reasonable deal for both player and team.
Lowry will turn 32 by the end of the deal, if he opts into the fourth and final year. By most projections, he is currently at the tail end of his peak. Still, if he can stay healthy, the contract slots him in to the group where he belongs. It is the same contract Ty Lawson got from the Denver Nuggets last year. That makes sense. Although Lowry has been in the league longer than Lawson, both are point guards who have never been all-stars or on all-NBA teams, but are right on the cusp of that level. Lowry should have received more consideration to receive both honours this year, but for a variety of reasons, he was ignored on both counts.
Of course, Lowry has a short track record of playing to that level, which makes the money the Raptors are offering him generous. Before last year, Lowry had dealt with fairly significant injuries in three of his prior four years, and there is concern some of those ailments might recur.