After clearing waivers on Tuesday, free agent guard Kyle Lowry has officially signed with the Sixers as planned, Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports confirms (via Twitter). President of basketball operations Daryl Morey published an Instagram photo showing Lowry signing his contract.
Lowry was traded from Miami to Charlotte for salary-matching purposes in the January deal that sent Terry Rozier to the Heat. The veteran point guard never suited up for the Hornets, who explored the possibility of flipping him to a new team prior to the trade deadline, but couldn’t find a taker due to his $29.7MM cap hit.
Lowry reached a buyout agreement with Charlotte a couple days later and was officially waived on Sunday.
A six-time All-Star and former NBA champion, Lowry will turn 38 next month and is no longer the impact player he was earlier in his career. He averaged just 8.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in 28.0 minutes per game across 37 appearances (35 starts) with Miami this season. All of those averages are his lowest since 2008/09.
Still, Lowry is a tough, savvy veteran who is hitting three-pointers at a 38.5% clip this season. He’ll provide some depth in a Sixers backcourt that no longer features Patrick Beverley or Jaden Springer, who were sent out in deadline deals. Lowry and new addition Cameron Payne figure to back up Tyrese Maxey at the point and will likely spend some time playing alongside Maxey.
As Keith Smith of Spotrac tweets, Lowry gave up $1,138,964 in his buyout agreement with Charlotte. That’s the exact amount he’d receive on a prorated minimum-salary deal for the rest of the 2023/24 season, but ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Saturday that the guard’s rest-of-season contract will actually be worth $2.8MM, which suggests it’s coming out of the 76ers’ mid-level exception.
Kyle’s better days are behind him. He’ll be a decent role player at best. Is still very savvy and knows all the tricks. Needs to get in shape. Looks a bit heavy.
I expect a minutes reduction when/if Melton returns. Maxey, Buddy, Payne, Melton, Lowry, Council in the mix at the guard spots will be interesting to see the minutes divided up. Something like 18-22mpg for Lowry.
Sixers are in serious pain at F/C tho. Need to address that ASAP. Not sure who they are waiting for to get BO.
Maybe Drummond gets a BO?
Why on earth would bulls buy out Drummond ?