Toronto Raptors: 2017-18 player grades for Kyle Lowry

Strengths

As I mentioned in the previous slide, the team’s modernized offense meant that Lowry took on fewer responsibilities as the primary ball-handler. However, this did not drastically dampen his productivity.

Despite a 3.2 percent drop in usage from last year, Lowry still averaged 16.2 points, 6.9 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game with a .427/.399/.854 shooting line. He also finished with a respectable 19.5 Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and 10.2 win shares.

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In particular, Lowry was one of the better playmaking guards in the NBA this year. Of the 35 players that played in at least 60 games and averaged at least four pick-and-roll possessions per game, Lowry ranked 10th in points per possession (0.90). He also ranked 13th among 270 guards who played at least 60 games in potential assists and 18th in adjusted pass-to-assist ratio.

Lowry has also quietly emerged as one of the deadlier 3-point shooters in the league. His overall shooting from distance speaks for itself, but he was also very effective from the corners (47 percent), on pull-ups 3s (40 percent), on catch-and-shoot 3s (41.3 percent) and on 3s where the closest defender is more than six feet away (47.3 percent). He wasn’t as good as he was last year when he made 41.2 percent of his treys, but Lowry can still drain 3s with the best of them.

By a lot of measures, he was also a good defender. Opponents only shot 43.7 percent overall and 33 percent from 3 when Lowry guarded them. They also struggled running the pick-and-roll against him; opponents only averaged 0.77 points per possession against Lowry in those situations. It’s no wonder his defensive win shares and defensive box plus/minus went up this year.