NBA Rumors: Will Kyle Lowry Re-Sign With The Toronto Raptors This Summer?

NBA Rumors: Should the Toronto Raptors pony up big money in order to keep their current core together when Kyle Lowry hits free agency this summer?

Serge Ibaka. P.J. Tucker. Patrick Patterson…. and Kyle Lowry?

While the first three names mentioned are for sure going to be unrestricted free agents after the 2016-17 NBA season, Lowry may join them in the realm of free agency if he exercises his player option. With Lowry already on the wrong side of 30 (he’s currently 31 years old), he will be surely looking to cash in on what will most likely be his last lucrative contract of his career; whether it come from the Raptors or another team is a different question.

It’s that question that I want to answer today – will Lowry be playing for the team he’s been with since the 2012-13 season, or a different squad?

Before I go any further, I have to share what I found after digging and doing some research on Lowry’s career.

For those of you that didn’t know, Lowry started his career in the Western Conference with the Memphis Grizzlies. During his stint in Memphis he only started in 51 games, and played in 218 of a possible 328 contests. Those numbers are a bit misleading though, as he was backing up Mike Conley for most of his time in Memphis; mainly due to the broken wrist injury he suffered just 10 games into his rookie season that knocked him out for the rest of that year.

While there were a lot of interesting storylines during his time in Memphis, I think the most interesting comes from spotrac.com – Lowry signed a two-year, $2.06 million deal with Memphis with the third year being a team option. The Grizzlies exercised the option, but would go on to trade him late in the season in February of 2009 to the Houston Rockets.

Up until that point the Rockets had been rolling with veteran PG Rafer Alston to be their starter, whose best season came with the Toronto Raptors (14.2 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 6.4 APG – the NBA’s funny that way sometimes). Despite Lowry’s arrival in H-Town, he would make zero starts the rest of that season. Instead, veteran journeyman Aaron Brooks would start the rest of the way with the likes of Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, Luis Scola, and Shane Battier. Those Rockets teams were stacked. Man, I wish I was more into the NBA back then. ANYWAYS.

2010 is when things start to really get interesting.

After the 2009-2010 season, the Rockets offered him a qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent, meaning that the Rockets had the right to match any offer made to him by another team. Lowry received one…. from the Cleveland Cavaliers; despite Mo Williams starting 68 games (and only being 27 at the time). Oh, and some guy LeBron James was still there. Does he go to Miami still if Lowry comes to the Land? Does Kyrie get drafted? I’m not so sure…..

Side note: Also on that 2009-10 Cavs team was current Spurs starting SG Danny Green. 

So what ends up happening? Houston ends up matching the four-year, $24 deal Cleveland was offering him, and he seems to finally have found a home….. until he gets traded in July of 2012 to Toronto for Gary Forbes and a 2013 lottery protected first round pick.

If you’re wondering who Gary Forbes is (or rather, was), don’t worry! I got you.

Forbes only played in the NBA for two years, and he only averaged 13.5 MPG for his career. He’s currently playing for the Boca Juniors in a Panamanian professional league. There’s not much else to tell here.

Fast forwarding a bit here, Kyle Lowry’s contract runs out again in 2014, and his future with Toronto was a little bit up in the air – while he averaged 17.9 PPG in a contract year, he only averaged 11.6 PPG the year prior; and 52 of the 68 games he played in that year were starts (back when Jose Calderon was a starting-caliber PG in this league). Was a 6.3 increase in scoring average going to be enough?

Well, the Raptors thought so, because they gave him a four-year, $48 million dollar extension to which he’s rewarded them with three All-Star appearances (2015-17), and a playoff trip in every year but his inaugural season in the Six.

Long story short: Kyle Lowry is not lousy as basketball.

With this all set up, the question still remains: will he be loving the crew come next season? Or will he be donning a different uniform?

To find the answer to that question, we’re going to get the negatives out of the way first – reasons why Lowry won’t leave Toronto.