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Tim BontempsESPN
Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry doesn’t know where his future lies after this season or even after this year’s commercial deadline. But he’s sure of one thing: as long as he finishes his career, he’ll retire in the Raptors ’uniform.
“Let me say this: I’ll retire as a Toronto Raptor,” Lowry said after the team trained Wednesday night before starting the second half of the season in Tampa, Florida, against the Atlanta Hawks.
What Lowry was unwilling to commit to, however, was to return to Toronto as a free agent when his contract expires this summer, or even say he will definitely be with the team past the trade deadline in two. weeks.
“What I would like is to finish this season as strong as possible,” Lowry said.
“After all, I, my agent, the organization, everyone has to do what’s best for them, right? Everyone has to do what’s best for them and that situation.
“Who knows what that is, right? Who knows what it will be, who knows what this time will say? For me, I know I’m still playing at a level good enough to help a team, I can help and improve.”
Lowry’s name has appeared repeatedly in recent weeks as a possible commercial target for the teams. The Raptors have two games below .500 after being among the best teams in the East in recent years and the commercial market itself is scarce after so many star players have changed teams or signed extensions with the current in recent seasons. He could be the biggest impact player available.
That is, if Lowry is really available. Lowry, as he has done repeatedly, praised the young core team of Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and Norman Powell for their growth.
But he didn’t expand his future much, other than pointing to a recent report that had told people he was leaving Toronto, which he said was not true.
“I don’t engage in that, and it doesn’t bother me because rumors are rumors and always will be,” Lowry said. “But when it’s said that something doesn’t come to me verbally and I haven’t said anything, that’s when it gets to the point of saying,‘ Did you register me saying that? I want to know who the source is, because the source is me ‘.
“That kind of thing is where you defend yourself. I don’t care. It’s just to defend myself a quick second.”
Lowry, who averages 18 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.9 assists this season, still plays at a level high enough to be one of two components of a team that is contested on the deadline if he is changed. and get a strong salary as a free agent this summer, whether he has been negotiated or not.
Ultimately, however, he insisted he did not know what would happen on either side.
“For me personally, no matter what happens, we’ll see,” Lowry said. “I don’t know. We don’t know. How, honestly, I don’t know. If I could tell you, if I could look at a crystal ball, I’d tell you, but I don’t know what the crystal ball says. I don’t know what it will happen. I don’t know what they think, I’m thinking about it. We’ll just get to this point and find out from here. “
Although the Raptors will be left without several players (VanVleet, Siakam, Anunoby, Patrick McCaw and Malachi Flynn) due to NBA safety and health protocols, they will recover head coach Nick Nurse, who has been out since the All-All Star Break.
The nurse said that while he will definitely train against the Hawks, the five technical assistants who had also been in protocol with him would possibly still not be able to join him for that game.
It took the nurse on Wednesday to defend herself and her coaching staff after a report came out last week saying they were guilty of not following protocols.
“Oh, I don’t think anyone has any idea what he’s talking about saying that,” the nurse said. “This is a very unfair, very speculative thing, unless you have video evidence of it, because I don’t think it’s great to say it.
“I think our coaching staff has worked their ass off and followed the rules as best they can. It’s not easy … the players have a hard job, but they don’t wear masks. The referees have a hard job to do: they don’t wear masks Coaches have a hard job to do and wear masks.It’s a little harder.
“But I think we’ve gotten into an unfortunate race. It’s certainly not that we’re really not trying to stick to the protocols as best we can.”