Kyle Lowry was dealt to the Toronto Raptors in the summer of 2012 and since then, has only increased his value in the NBA. He’s become a two-time All-Star, was a third team All-NBA selection last season and has accomplished most of these feats since signing a $48 million deal to stay with Toronto back in 2014. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, Lowry plans to get back in the free-agent market next summer — but he doesn’t want to leave the Raptors:
Out of the uncertainty of a year ago, Lowry has been voted an All-Star starter for a second straight year, delivered the Raptors within two victories of the NBA Finals and earned Olympic gold with Team USA. Within a year, Lowry had gone deeper into an improbable career transformation: From journeyman malcontent to a franchise guard, from his bags packed for a trade to New York in 2013 to a burgeoning Canadian sporting icon, Lowry has never had so much opportunity, so much leverage.
Lowry plans to opt out of the final year of his contract, he told The Vertical, passing on a $12 million salary in 2017-18 to join a point-guard marketplace that will include the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul and Golden State’s Steph Curry, who has already said he plans to re-sign with the Warriors.
As an organization, the Raptors have richly rewarded those responsible for the franchise’s unprecedented success: From DeMar DeRozan’s five-year, $139 million extension in July, to the extensions and high-end raises for president Masai Ujiri and coach Dwane Casey, Toronto conducts itself as a legitimate big-market powerhouse.
Lowry, 30, loves the life he has there, the contending core, the endorsement opportunities, the manic fanbase and the chance to someday raise his No. 7 into the arena rafters. Somewhere on the summer market – Philadelphia, New York, perhaps the Clippers, should they lose Paul – there will be an offer in the neighborhood of a max deal for him. Nevertheless, Lowry’s preference is a painless, fast, five-year deal to stay in Toronto, to take him into his mid-30s with the Raptors.
“If you’re that franchise’s guy, and you’re the guy that they’ve been rolling with, and you’ve given that franchise everything you have, yeah, I think [the talks] should be easy,” Lowry told The Vertical. “I think it should be a situation where a guy shouldn’t have to talk to another team. DeMar didn’t have the chance to talk to another team. …
“For me, I think that at 12:01 a.m. on July 1 – something should be close. If not, I’m open to seeing what else is out there.”
This is no ultimatum out of Lowry, no threat: It is simply the reality of a robust market, where All-Star players reaching the conference finals are compensated accordingly now. Ujiri makes no negotiating promises in public, but understand: Toronto hasn’t lost a player that it’s been committed to keeping. History’s on Lowry’s side here.
“Kyle has been at the forefront of the Raptor movement,” Ujiri told The Vertical. “How he goes, we go. He has helped establish a culture that will grow even more. We really appreciate that. He is a winner, and we want to win.”
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Lowry spent his USA Basketball summer with Kyrie Irving, whom he had a hellacious battle with in the Eastern Conference finals. “A future MVP,” Lowry said, but the Eastern Conference has been about one player – one mountain – for the past decade: LeBron James.
“Somebody has to break through against them – and him,” Lowry told The Vertical. “To beat him, it takes a lot. It takes a whole lot. He is LeBron James. You’ve got to beat him.
“You’re always chasing Cleveland. You were chasing Miami before. You’re chasing the team that’s the conference champion and now the NBA champion. They have the guys, have LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love and a trophy.”
