Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, who is entering the final year of his contract, suggested last week that he’d love to remain in Toronto beyond the 2019/20 season and would have interest in signing an extension with the team. However, Eric Koreen of The Athletic believes it’s unlikely that Lowry and the Raptors will find common ground on a new deal before he reaches free agency next summer.
As Koreen explains, Lowry projects to be one of the very best free agents on the market next offseason, particularly if Anthony Davis re-ups with the Lakers. He’s also a five-time All-Star who just helped lead the Raptors to a championship. In other words, he’ll likely be expecting another big payday.
On the other hand, the Raptors are entering a transition year and are still trying to figure out what their post-Kawhi Leonard future might look like. With barely any guaranteed money on the books for next season, Toronto may prefer to maintain its flexibility rather than entering into a new agreement with Lowry right away.
Plus, with Lowry set to turn 34 during the 2019/20 season, it’s not clear how heavily the Raptors would be willing to invest in him going forward. While a contract extension is still a possibility, Koreen wouldn’t be surprised if those discussions are “put on hold for a while.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- With the Nets swapping one wealthy foreign owner for another, Brian Lewis of The New York Post suggests that the team’s willingness to spend won’t change much as Joseph Tsai takes the reins from Mikhail Prokhorov. However, Lewis expects Tsai to be far more visible around the Nets and the NBA than Prokhorov had been in recent years.
- In his latest mailbag for The Athletic, Derek Bodner explores the likelihood of the Sixers bringing draft-and-stash prospect Vasilije Micic stateside at some point, weighs the team’s ability to make another big splash on the trade market, and addresses a handful of other 76ers-related topics.
- After being a full-time starter for the Celtics in 2017/18, Jaylen Brown started just 25 of his 74 contests last season and saw his playing time reduced by nearly five minutes per game. Appearing on this week’s episode of The Michael Holley Podcast, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge praised Brown for the way he responded. “He might have handled a difficult situation better than anybody on our team last year,” Ainge said (per Dave Green of NBC Sports Boston). “Very mature kid, wants to be great, knows that his time is coming.”
The Raptors would be dumb to resign Lowry for anything more then 25 million and even that might be an overpay at age 34.
Think they’ll just try to move him?
Winning the championship hurt them. Yes. That sounds stupid. But had they known Kawhi was leaving, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t, they could have traded Lowry after the season ended. But losing Kawhi and trading Lowry would have crushed the fans and left them worse than they are now. Now they have to at least hold him until deadline. Then trade him to a team on the cusp and get as many assets as they can.
Yea, or they attempt to resign him for significantly less in the offseason. Gotta think who has money and willing to dole it out for a 34 y o PG with declining #s and a history of playoff failures. I mean his finals performance was the outlier, not his norm.
Gasol, Ibaka. I could see them dealt. Would probably be in a swap for trash and a pick tho.
They took a big risk (trading for Kawhi), and it paid off. Period. That risk went beyond losing Kawhi, it was about constructing a roster designed to maximize their chances last year. That will have long term consequences. But any smart fan would trade 5 years of good for 1 championship and 4 years of mediocre. Championship memories last forever
Lowry to Spurs for Derozan?
Lowry and Powell for Teague and Wiggins and a couple seconds. TWolves get a leader of a Guard in Lowry to help develop Culver and Towns, they get a solid D from him, they also get out from Wiggins deal. The Raptors get Wiggins who gives them a fresh start. Lowry is on expiring deal at 34 and isn’t worth 20 mil and not worth a 2 year deal. Wiggins the former number 1 pick gives them a go to scorer and leader. He’s from Canada so it’s a homecoming to get the Raptors fans happy and he could develop well with Siakim next to him playing solid D. They also get Teague who can fill the PG slot for the year, a couple second rounders and they get out from paying Powell 10 mil a year for 10 mins a decent production a night. Win win for both teams
I hope this comment is a joke.
Post uncle drew Celtics will be a far superior team, jb jt and kemba all starting and already bonding for the USA team is huge, ppl forget how important chemistry is in sports the trust and reliance you need to have in your teammates should be a fun year watching them mature and prosper together kemba is one of the most team centric players in the game and will be a great role model for the younger players.
Seems likely Lowry will statistically regress next year, in addition to the near certain decline of Raps success as a team. He will cost less in a year, maybe substantially so just do it then.