Raptors Deciding to Overpay Kyle Lowry for Yet Another Year is Downright Stupid
By Jerry Trotta
Kyle Lowry was set to hit the free agent market next July, as his current contract with the Toronto Raptors was set to expire. While most basketball pundits expected the Raps to let Lowry, now 33 years old and well past his prime, to walk next summer, Toronto apparently has different intentions.
Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday morning the Raptors have signed the five-time All-Star to a one-year contract extension worth $31 million.
Straight up, we have absolutely know idea why Toronto's President of Basketball Operations Masai Ujiri opted to trek down this path.
Breaking: Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors have agreed on a one-year, $31M contract extension that takes the five-time All-Star guard out of July’s free agency market, agent Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tells ESPN. https://t.co/nkhme9AHes
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 7, 2019
Answer this for us, Raptors fans: does a player who averaged 14 points and 8.7 assists per game in 2018 while shooting 41.1% from the floor and 34.7% from 3-point land deserve to be paid north of $30 million?
No. A profound and emphatic, NO.
Does Toronto think that holding onto Lowry will really keep their championship aspirations afloat? Folks, those hopes died the second that it was announced Kawhi Leonard would be taking his talents to sunny Los Angeles with the Clippers. The Raps still have a nice core of players, but they won't be making much noise in the Eastern Conference playoffs next year.
Kyle Lowry has agreed to a 1-year, $31M contract extension with the Toronto Raptors, via ESPN.
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) October 7, 2019
It might seem like we detest Lowry, but that is anything but the case. The Villanova product is a nice player, but he's not out here offering himself contracts that he doesn't deserve. That's on the organization's braintrust.
The Raptors were inching closer to finally being able to rid themselves of Lowry's massive salary, and they went out of their way to lock themselves into another year of overpaying the veteran point guard.