After main them again into the Playoffs for the primary time final season for the reason that 2007–’08 season, the Toronto Raptors inked level guard Kyle Lowry to a four-year, $48 million contract this summer time.
In a terrific Grantland profile, Lowry reveals that when he was dealt from Houston to Toronto in July 2012, the Raptors front-office was too busy chasing the ghost of Steve Nash to ever envision Lowry turning into one of many faces of the franchise:
“You at all times ask for a crew to be your crew, proper?” he stated. “Each single evening, that crew and your teammates are like, All proper, you realize it’s essential to deliver it for everyone else. And should you don’t deliver it, they ain’t bringing it. So once you’re the chief, you’ve acquired to [be] mentally centered each evening. Fortunately, my backcourt mate [DeMar DeRozan], we get alongside. I say we’re co-leaders and we perceive [that] typically, issues aren’t going to go the appropriate approach … Each single evening, we’re enjoying for one another.”
“I didn’t need to get traded,” Lowry stated. “I knew [Toronto was] making an attempt to get Steve Nash. That is what they stated: They wished Steve Nash to be the purpose guard for 2 years after which me study behind Nash and to receives a commission and be the starter after Steve referred to as it a profession. I stated, ‘No, I don’t need to be a backup. You’re not buying and selling for me to be a backup.’ They did the commerce anyway, however they didn’t get Steve.”
Even with the failed pursuit of Nash — who landed with the Lakers — Toronto had one other entrenched starter in Jose Calderon. “Jose is a superb participant and [an even] higher individual, however I felt we would have liked a so-called ‘level guard of the longer term’ and a participant the crew might construct an identification round,” wrote Bryan Colangelo, Toronto’s common supervisor on the time, in a current electronic mail. “This isn’t a knock on Jose, however Kyle was undoubtedly that man. […] I actually believed we might be significantly better with him working the crew so a mid-to-late 1st was not a excessive value. Seems I used to be solely near proper — quantity 12 was lower than ‘mid’ and my timing was a yr off so far as crew efficiency.”
