The Toronto Raptors announced Sunday evening, that Kyle Lowry has decided to stay with the team when he signed a new deal for three years worth $100 million, according to ESPN. Lowry decided to opt out of the final year of his previous deal at the end of this past season, and reportedly had meetings with other NBA teams before making the decision to stay with the Raptors. It was rumored that Lowry was interested in signing with his hometown team, the Philadelphia 76ers, prior to the NBA Draft. However, when the team drafted point guard Markelle Fultz with the No.
1 overall selection, Lowry became less of an interest to Philly.
Although Lowry has been able to lead the Raptors to the playoffs in four of his five seasons he's been with the team, the Raptors have not been able to make it to the NBA Finals during any of those years. They've struggled to get past Lebron James like the rest of the Eastern Conference has for the last seven seasons. The biggest question for the team this off-season was what pieces would they add around Lowry and fellow all-star teammate DeMar DeRozan to finally make an NBA Finals appearance?
Off-season moves for Toronto
Besides signing Kyle Lowry to a new deal this summer, the Raptors also made signing starting power forward, Serge Ibaka one of their big priorities this off-season as well.
This past week they were able to re-sign Ibaka to a new three-year deal. Now the next move for Toronto is making sure they can add more pieces around their starting unit.
Lowry and DeRozan have already proven to the rest of the league that they are all-star players. If they can add a couple of more guys that can score at a high-level, they may be able to stay above float in an Eastern Conference that is beginning to gain a lot of young talent.
Breaking: Kyle Lowry announces he is re-signing with the Raptors on a 3-year, $100 million deal. (via @PlayersTribune) pic.twitter.com/J2dT8Ng0eD
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 2, 2017
Keeping Masai Ujiri
The Raptors president of basketball operations, Masai Ujiri, has been a big part of the success that Toronto has been able to attain over the last several years.
However, recently, the New York Knicks parted ways with Phil Jackson who held their president position for the last three seasons. Immediately after he was fired, Masai Ujiri became the leading person of interest to replace Jackson in the Knicks front office.
Although the job with New York could possibly mean a bigger payday for Ujiri, he is still under contract with Toronto which means the Knicks would have to give up their much-needed assets to pull off the deal. The difficulty in acquiring Ujiri from the Raptors has made former Cavs GM David Griffin, a strong candidate for the position. Which is probably good news for Toronto, being as though he is the man largely responsible for the direction of the team over the last several seasons.
