Raptors’ Lowry ready for biggest challenge yet after franchise-defining day

Kyle Lowry spoke with Eric Smith following his press conference re-introducing the All-Star point guard to the Raptors.

TORONTO — The measure of an NBA franchise isn’t always where it’s going, but where it’s been.

By that standard, the Toronto Raptors have had an impressive summer. There were times – lots of them – when having their best players hitting free agency in the off-season was cause for varying degrees of panic, most of it justified. But a year ago the Raptors retaining three-time all-star DeMar DeRozan was almost an afterthought. Of course DeRozan was going to keep playing here.

And then on Friday the Raptors made formal the re-signing of both three-time all-star Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, who has all-star pedigree if not the official designation. The two Andy Miller clients will be dividing $155 million over the next three seasons, with Lowry earning $30-million annually in guaranteed money and Ibaka’s combination of three-point range and rim protection worth $21.67 million each year. Lowry has incentives that could be worth another $10 million.

It was a franchise-defining day; the path for the next three years made clear. It’s a massive investment in keeping the Raptors’ four-year playoff streak going – no small thing in itself.

Missing was the drama. The relief of having dodged a bullet and all the ‘state-of-the-Raptors’ hand-wringing that would have followed. While there was “speculation” — as Raptors president Masai Ujiri put it — that Lowry might be looking for somewhere else to finish his career, he was always of the belief that the most likely scenario was Lowry returning and Ibaka, too.

Which is how when a team announces the re-signing of – arguably – the greatest player in franchise history in Lowry and likely one of the franchise’s top-10 talents in Ibaka, the whole event feels a little anti-climactic.

The arrival of Hedo Turkoglu was greeted with greater fanfare.

Lowry and Ibaka? There were no children waving signs, or even representation from ownership (although in fairness MLSE board chairman Larry Tanenbaum usually makes every effort to play that role and most likely simply had a conflict).

But there is comfort in the idea that the world doesn’t stop spinning because the Raptors are now in the habit of keeping their best players. It’s the way things should be – acknowledge and move on to the business of getting better.

Keeping Lowry and Ibaka is clearly a massive part of the Raptors doing just that. How good that makes the Raptors next year is an open question.

Simply keeping the core plus Ibaka together may be the biggest reason for optimism for 2017-18. Toronto head coach Dwane Casey has always done well with continuity. Having a major piece like Ibaka for the entire year, compared to the post-all-star game sprint, should help that project.

“Last year was such a rush, what 20 games? I got like two games with the guys,” said Lowry [it was actually three]. “I think having a full training camp, getting the communication down, getting the coverages down. Getting to feel what Serge likes, getting more time with … all the guys out on the floor together. We’re trying to make sure we’re on the same page. When you have a full year together it helps.”

Will it help enough? Lowry says he wants to win a championship – and who doesn’t really? He even sounded convincing when he said he felt Toronto was the best place to do just that.

“I believe it’s the best place to win a ring and even if it wasn’t I want to make it that,” he said. “But I believe it’s the best place to win a ring.”

We applaud the ambition, but title or not, Lowry’s Raptors tenure deserves to be celebrated. Inch by inch he’s grown. He’s not the same person now as the one who arrived here via a very good Bryan Colangelo trade in the summer of 2012.

The idea of the surly, just-passing-through Lowry of old signing on at age 31 and committing to spend eight years of his life in Toronto, raising two children here and using words like ‘partnership’ when discussing his role with the Raptors was laughable four or five years ago.

Which doesn’t mean sources that told me and others that Lowry was eager to leave the Raptors for alternate pastures even a few weeks ago were wrong. Lowry acknowledged that he was open to playing the field to the extent he could.

“You know, you do consider it,” he said. “You know, you say you’ve been here five years, what about this, what about this new adventure, what about trying to start something new, what about trying this or trying that? The thought process is always there. If you say you want to change your job, or you want to work on something else, there’s always a thought process that hmm, that could be interesting.”

In a market that was flush with point guard talent it’s not clear that he had anywhere better to go, and nowhere that would pay him what the Raptors will over the next three years.

But even that payday likely required some reassessment from Lowry, who – according to sources – was confident he’d be choosing among several four-year offers for ‘max’ dollars (about $150-million).

That didn’t materialize, but Lowry sounds like he’s ready to view his relationship with the Raptors with a wider lens.

What Ujiri was looking for before committing to Lowry again was a sense that the perpetually aggrieved point guard was willing to put aside petty differences and take ownership of everything that happens around the team.

Words are cheap, never more than at a press conference, but Lowry at least proved he heard the message.

“I think I’m back here for a reason,” he said. “They believe in me and I believe in them. That makes it easy. It’s a great partnership that we have. I want to make sure we continue to get better. If that means changing something and rolling with it, we’re all in. I’m all in. I’m excited to be here. There’s no questioning, we’re going to do what we need to do. Coach’s decisions, personal decisions, ownership decisions. I’m all in.”

This is likely music to Casey’s ears – and Ujiri’s too. A little bit of creative friction is a good thing, but Lowry can be very creative. It wears on people.

Looking trim and fit – he says he’s just started running, finally recovered from his ankle sprain suffered in the playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers – he says in his career’s twilight he’s committed to playing for something a little bigger than himself or a contract. He’s being paid to lead and is ready for the fullness of his most challenging assignment yet.

“I think just being able to face all types of challenges: bad stretches, bad games, media criticizing you,” he said. “You have to be able to take that and make it into a positive and somehow accept it, face it head on, and try not to shy back. Because at the end of the day everyone’s going to look at you and you have to be able to say, ‘this is why this is happening. Fix it. Don’t pout on it, don’t dwell on it, make yourself better. Make your team better. Make the organization better, make your life better.’”

There’s no guarantee pulling that off will result in Lowry earning a championship ring as a Raptor – the odds in the LeBron James/Golden State era remain impossibly long. But if he does manage those things: to keep growing as a person, a leader and a player, the Raptors will be a better franchise for it, better than they’ve ever been. And that’s worth something.

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