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Tim BontempsESPN
The Toronto Raptors are keeping star point guard Kyle Lowry, a source told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Thursday.
Lowry, who turned 35 Thursday, was the biggest trade chip available leading up to this year’s deadline, with the six-time All-Star and championship-winning point guard being coveted by several contending teams.. Lowry has remained one of the NBA’s best two-way guards this season, averaging 17.4 points and 7.5 assists per game while shooting 39 percent from 3-point range while continuing to be one of the top defensive guards in the league.
Ultimately, Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri didn’t find a package that compelled him to trade the franchise icon — and Lowry had always been fine with completing the season with Toronto, sources told ESPN.
Lowry will enter free agency this summer.
In the weeks leading up to the deadline, both Philadelphia and Miami were repeatedly linked with Lowry — giving him a chance to either go home to Philadelphia, where he starred at Villanova before entering the NBA, or to join his good friend Jimmy Butler with the defending Eastern Conference champion Heat.
He insisted Wednesday night, however, that he didn’t know what was going to happen — and that he’d be fine with whatever did, including potentially staying with the Raptors for the duration of this season.
“Whatever will be will be, honestly,” he said. “That’s the truth. Whatever will be will be. At the end of the day, everything happens for a reason. You can’t control everything, and in some situations you can, but every decision that has happened that I’ve had a choice in doing has worked out for me very well, and everything will be fine.
“At the end of the day, everything will be fine no matter what happens.”
And, ultimately, what happened was him staying with the Raptors.
It’s been a disappointing season for Toronto, which snapped a nine-game losing streak with an emphatic win over Denver Wednesday night — a game in which Lowry was plus-42. Playing this season in Tampa, Fla. due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and currently sit 1.5 games behind the Chicago Bulls for 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings.
Beyond Lowry, the Raptors also traded Norman Powell — another expiring contract — to the Portland Trail Blazers for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood, sources told Wojnarowski. Trent, a restricted free agent, should fit in very nicely alongside Toronto’s young core of Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam moving forward, as Toronto officially moves on from the group that won the title two years ago and shifts into the organization’s next era.
Toronto also made two minor moves, shipping guards Terence Davis and Matt Thomas to Sacramento and Utah, respectively, for future second-round picks, sources told Wojnarowski.