Kyle Lowry should be a free agency target for the San Antonio Spurs
By Simon Shortt
With Kyle Lowry opting out of his contract with the Toronto Raptors, there’s a chance both parties are ready to move on. Are the San Antonio Spurs a good match for the veteran point guard?
The San Antonio Spurs began looking for a “bridge point guard” last summer when they met with free agent Mike Conley. At this point, it was just some insurance with veteran Tony Parker nearing the end of his career. With Parker missing the rest of the postseason and potentially a portion of next year, the time for the Spurs’ next point guard is now.
The next question is where the team will go to find said point guard. They could re-sign Patty Mills, their free agent sixth man, and move him up in the rotation. But head coach Gregg Popovich has shown since Parker’s injury he prefers Patty in a bench role. Whether or not that is true for the long-term as well as the short-term remains to be seen.
The Spurs also have their point guard of the future in Dejounte Murray. Murray was drafted 29th overall by San Antonio in last year’s draft and has played admirably as a starter in both the regular season and the postseason. But the 20-year-old rookie might not be ready to be handed the keys full-time just yet.
Instead of keeping it in-house, the San Antonio Spurs should look to free agency to find someone to assume Parker’s role. There are a number of free agent floor generals this year, all of different ages, skill sets and levels of talent. What the Spurs need this summer is a highly talented playmaker who can create for himself and others to take the pressure off of Kawhi Leonard. But they also need this person to be willing to put his ego aside and work within the system that Popovich has set up.
This person is Kyle Lowry.
The situation
Kyle Lowry’s Toronto Raptors were eliminated from the playoffs by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second year in a row. It appears that both Lowry and the Raptors realize something has got to give if either wants to win a championship, and that could mean parting ways this summer.
But do the Spurs have the necessary cap room to sign Lowry to a max deal? As of today they do not, with over $95 million committed to next season. Unless the ownership decides to shell out the extra cash or Lowry is willing to take a paycut, the team will have to make some hard choices this summer to sign the All-Star.
The worth
So if it would take money and potentially losing some core players, would bringing on Lowry be worth it? This time, the answer is yes. Kyle Lowry would come in and immediately be the second best player on the team no matter who leaves or stays.
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Lowry is playing the best basketball of his career, with averages of 22.4 points, 7.0 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals and shooting splits of .464/.412/.819 this season. Lowry was one of just eight players this year to average 30 points and nine assists per 100 possessions, and one of three to do it while shooting above 40 percent from three (the other two were Stephen Curry and Mike Conley).
We saw how vital a surging Tony Parker was for Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs in these playoffs. Now give Parker a three-point jumper and some more defensive abilities, and you have Kyle Lowry.
Over the last few seasons we’ve seen how well Lowry played with a dynamic scoring wing in DeMar DeRozan. Give DeRozan a three-point jumper, unworldly defensive abilities and some other extra abilities and you have Kawhi Leonard. If both players can lead their team to conference finals contention without one another, together they should be able to take a step forward.
Pairing these two together would give them both their best teammate since they’ve reached their primes. Combine that with the culture of San Antonio, the coaching of Pop and a few key role players and you still have a championship team.
Should it happen?
There are trends every few years in the NBA; it’s how the league works. A few years ago the Philadelphia 76ers decided if they were just competing for a first round playoff exit, they might as well tank and build a championship team through top draft picks. This method has since been copied.
This summer is turning into the, “My current team clearly can’t beat Golden State or Cleveland, so it’s time for a change.” This is the case for many top teams in the league, potentially including the Spurs and definitely including the Raptors.
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With that in mind, Lowry is the player the Spurs need if they are going to get back to the top of the league. Should San Antonio choose to make a run at him, and decide that they need to move certain pieces, it will be hard making the choices of who to move on from. But adding Kyle Lowry to this roster is a major plus for the San Antonio Spurs, even if some team favorites have to leave to make it happen.