Toronto Raptors: Kyle Lowry Proving Hard Work Pays Off

Kyle Lowry has gotten off to torrid early season starts before. But, with a slimmer body and a reinvigorated attitude, “Skinny” Lowry may be able to fight off his midseason demons and finally lead the Toronto Raptors past the first round of the playoffs.

Ah, the power of modern day social media.

With a simple Instagram post, Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry made waves this summer when he appeared noticeably “slimmer” in New York Knicks’ center Kyle O’Quinn‘s “hey, look how hard I’m working in the offseason” group collage.

Even his contemporaries around the league couldn’t believe the transformation Lowry had undertaken. In particular, Los Angeles Clippers sharpshooter, J.J. Redick, thought his eyes had deceived him when he first drew notice of O’Quinn’s post:

Redick disbelief screenshot /

Bro, that is Lowry … “Skinny” Lowry.

And “Skinny” Lowry, much like his chubbier versions of years past, came out of the gates of the 2015-16 NBA season blazing — playing like a top-five point guard and the undisputed best guard in the East.

However, the diminutive floor general of the Toronto Raptors has enjoyed similar starts in campaigns past — leading “Canada’s team” to a bombarding start while scoring and assisting at an astronomical rate. But each season, just like clockwork, Lowry’s year would follow the same script.

Specifically, after “going off” in the beginning months of the season, his play would drop off drastically as the year wore on.

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Last season, the Raptors entered the calendar year of 2015 sporting a sterling 24-8 record. And up to that point, “Chubby” Kyle averaged 20.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.7 assists, and 1.5 steals a contest on 56.4 percent TS% (true shooting percentage) and an individual offensive rating of 121.

Toronto’s final 50 games to their 2014-15 campaign sang a completely different tune, however, as the team stumbled to a 25-25 finish while Lowry’s play fell off the proverbial cliff.

In fact, during said stretch, the Philadelphia native not only battled through a litany of injuries, but his numbers also dipped to 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.6 steals per game on 49.0 percent TS% and an offensive rating of just 100.

Suffice to say, it was logical to assume Lowry would experience a similar brand of drop off this season when he got off to such a blistering start.

Explicitly, as we entered the new year, the former Villanova Wildcat was averaging 20.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists, and 2.2 steals a game on 56.6 percent TS% and an offensive rating of 111; meanwhile, the Raptors rushed out to a 20-13 start through 33 games — a nearly identical level of individual production and team success when compared to last season.

“Skinny” Lowry, conversely, is giving his anticipated annual drop off a big F U this year; as the slimmer Kyle looks to be sustaining his level of play as the season intrudes past the halfway mark.

Toronto has maintained its fine play, winning five of their last seven, while their resident pitbull has fought off any remnants of a midseason lull by putting up 21.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 7.6 assists, and 2.4 steals per game in 2016.

It also helps that his backcourt teammate, DeMar DeRozan, is boasting his finest stretch as a pro — not coincidentally, in his contract season.

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But Lowry is still the straw that stirs the Raptors’ drink; the engine that powers the team; or whatever other idiom you’d prefer to use. At the end of the day, Lowry’s game — inherently infrastructured on his ability to score at the rim and from beyond the arc — is more efficient than DeRozan’s old-school, early-2000s influenced, mid-range dependent game.

And if Toronto wants to realize their realistic aspirations of finally advancing out of the first round — an accomplishment the franchise has failed to achieve since 2001 — “Skinny” Kyle Lowry has to continue to be a thing; a sustainable and destructive thing.

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