While we’re still more than three weeks from the start of the regular season, at least one element of the 2016-17 Raptors campaign will surely feel like deja vu from last season: the contract status of one of the Raptors’ all-star guards.
Like DeMar DeRozan a year before him, Kyle Lowry has a player option for next season that would pay him $12 million in 2017-18. And, like DeRozan a year before him, Lowry is expected to opt-out of his deal next summer. While doing so would mean Lowry will become a free agent— joining Steph Curry and Chris Paul as high-profile free-agent guards— Lowry indicated in a recent interview with Yahoo!’s The Vertical that his priority is to get a deal done with the Raptors as quickly as possible.
“If you’re that franchise’s guy, and you’re the guy that they’ve been rolling with, and you’ve given that franchise everything you have, yeah, I think [the talks] should be easy,” Lowry told The Vertical. “I think it should be a situation where a guy shouldn’t have to talk to another team. DeMar didn’t have the chance to talk to another team. …For me, I think that at 12:01 a.m. on July 1 – something should be close. If not, I’m open to seeing what else is out there.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Lowry wants to stay in Toronto. After all, it’s the first team in three tries in the NBA that entrusted him to be a leader on the court, and it’s where his career has truly flourished. The 31 year-old point guard is coming off a career year in which he was named to the All-NBA 3rd team and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting last season (ok, that sounds a tad misleading— he finished 10th).
While both Lowry and the Raptors will have a year to evaluate the process, the star guard’s contract status will likely linger over the organization given how much Lowry and the teams’ decision could affect the future outlook for the franchise, who would be financially handcuffed with two long-term max. contracts on the books yet would almost surely take a significant step back should Lowry walk.
It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out, and don’t be surprised if things progress exactly like with DeRozan, who signed with the Raptors the moment the free-agent period began. But in the meantime, there’s still 82+ games to be played.
