Raptors Made Risky Decision to Spurn the Market and Keep Kyle Lowry

The Toronto Raptors decided to hold the line by keeping Kyle Lowry at the trade deadline and in doing so risk making a major mistake

Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Was the market wrong?

It's been almost 24 hours since Thursday's 3 p.m. ET NBA trade deadline and Kyle Lowry remains a member of the Toronto Raptors. Frankly, it's a little bit surprising. His name swirled around in trade rumours in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline and as the clock inched toward 3 p.m. with the Raptors already having moved Norman Powell to Portland and having freed up roster spots by trading away Matt Thomas and Terence Davis it seemed all but inevitable that Lowry's Raptors tenure would be coming to a close.

There's no doubt Lowry thought as much on Wednesday night. He gave what essentially was a farewell address after the Raptors beat the Denver Nuggets, sitting for over 20 minutes — an eternity in press conference time — answering every single question in length about his time in Toronto.

"I'm gonna be honest, usually I bullshit y'all but it was kinda weird tonight not knowing what the next step would be," he said Wednesday.

The Raptors, by all accounts, were right on the precipice of trading Lowry just before the deadline. What initially was reportedly a three-horse race between the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers — three teams with talented young players and varying degrees of draft pick flexibility — was whittled down to just two when Philadelphia added George Hill from the Oklahoma City Thunder. That was the first sign that the Raptors asking price might not be met.

Just before 3 p.m. the Raptors reportedly sent out one final request to the Heat and Lakers asking for their best offers preferably with top prospects Tyler Herro and Talen Horton-Tucker, respectively, involved.

No such offers were made. 

"There are a couple things that it seemed like could get done," Raptors president Masai Ujiri said Thursday night.

At best, the Raptors were steadfast in their value of the 35-year-old Lowry. It's hard to blame them, as Ujiri said, considering everything he's meant to the organization over the past nine seasons. 

"In the heat of the moment I was surprised [nobody wanted to pay our value for Lowry] because, to be honest, I've viewed him as somebody that can go out and put a stamp on what you can do this year," Ujiri said. "Teams that I saw I know that if he goes to those places, I've lived it, I've seen it. And especially these teams. They have a couple of those guys, so, to me, I know what the guy does. I know who he is. And that's the truth."

At worst, however, the Raptors were stubborn in their unwillingness to budge. There were certainly intriguing offers made, albeit "underwhelming" ones, as TSN's Josh Lewenberg reported Thursday. But instead of moving Lowry and beginning the process of retooling as they had with Powell just hours earlier, Toronto remains stuck in the middle. They're worse today than they were yesterday morning, but with Lowry still on the roster, they haven't fully transitioned into a new era led by Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, and hopefully Gary Trent Jr., the 22-year-old guard Toronto acquired from Portland for Powell.

The Raptors have made their bed and, as Ujiri said, they're comfortable sleeping in it. They are fully aware of Lowry's contract situation and the possibility that the franchise icon and a man who remains essentially as talented as ever even in his mid-30s can walk this summer leaving Toronto without any additional assets for the future. It's possible that the Raptors can work a sign-and-trade this summer, using Lowry's Bird rights to ink him to the $50 million over two years contract he's reportedly looking for and then flipping him to a team like the 76ers that lacks the cap space to sign him outright. That's essentially what the Raptors did with Chris Bosh all those years ago when he left for Miami. But those deals rarely bring back much in return and Toronto's asking price couldn't come close to whatever it was Thursday.

The best-case scenario is just a prolongment of this little dance the Raptors have been doing. It's possible Toronto signs Lowry to a multi-year deal and when the trade deadline rolls around next season the Raptors can reevaluate things. Either they'll be in contention and keeping Lowry would be the obvious choice or they can flip him to a contending team while he stills has a year and a half on his contract.

What the Raptors did Thursday was pick maybe the riskiest choice of all. They didn't quite go for it or hold course this season in a way that would have meant keeping Powell and trying to prove they're better than their 18-26 record would suggest, but they also didn't quite move ahead with that retooling that Ujiri spoke about. In some ways, even moving Lowry in a failed trade could have been helpful for the organization because it would have improved Toronto's lottery odds this season, allowing the Raptors to add a higher draft pick to a core of talented players.

Instead, Ujiri stuck to his guns. They were limited in the teams they could send Lowry to out of respect for his Toronto tenure and when faced with a value the market said was lower than they felt fair, they held the line. And so, they've pushed back the Lowry question for another day.

"Maybe we lost a chance here, but we also think we gained a chance in some other things going forward," Ujiri said. "This team, especially with what we’ve gone through this year, could pivot in many different directions. This is where we find ourselves now.”

If Toronto just barely misses the playoffs or loses in a play-in game this year and Lowry walks this summer, then taking nothing for him at the deadline will have been a costly mistake. If they keep Lowry and make a run at contention next season or manage to get more for him at the 2022 trade deadline, then Ujiri will have pulled off another miracle. He's made very few mistakes in his Toronto tenure. Pretty soon we'll find out if this was one of the first.