Kyle Lowry may not be putting up the same numbers as he did last year, but he is also playing fewer minutes.

Pump The Brakes

There is this idea floating out there that Lowry is washed up or isn’t good when it counts. Look, no matter what you think about Kyle he’s still having a good season and is a top two player on the Raptors. Have the playoffs been rough on Lowry over the last four years? Yes, but he also hasn’t been healthy for the majority of those playoff runs.

  Photo taken by Jose Garcia

Sustainability

The Internet likes to call DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry the “trash brothers.” People forget DeRozan was actually good in the playoffs last year aside from two games. And Lowry wasn’t bad considering he was playing injured. Yes, his scoring was down as well as his shooting numbers. However, Lowry’s shooting was on par with what John Wall, who was perfectly healthy, shot.

“But Lowry has been off in the playoffs every year. Is he injured every year?”

Last year Lowry’s arm was tapped up at the all-star game and he missed the majority of games post all-star break. There isn’t any question he wasn’t 100% when he returned right before the playoffs. In the previous season, Kyle had a massive bulge in his elbow so it’s clear he wasn’t 100% for that playoff run either. Now if we are talking about the Wizards series where the Raptors got swept there is a lot of blame to go around for that one, but I think it’s hard to put all the blame on Lowry when it looked like the team was gassed and just quit. Alright, now let us go back one more year where the Raptors went a full seven games with the Nets. Kyle Lowry actually played pretty well in that series despite getting blocked on what would have been the series-winning shot. He is not blamed for “losing” that series. If Lowry is healthy this go around you have to believe he will be on his game.

  Photo taken by Keith Allison

The Window

Kyle Lowry is the key to this three-year window for the Raptors. It’s hard to think when he’s in his mid-30s he will be better than what he is now. It’s easy to complain Lowry isn’t matching the career year he had last year, but the advanced stats still say he’s an excellent player. If Kyle didn’t push it to the limit in the regular season last year maybe he would have stayed healthy. This year it would appear that Dwane Casey is monitoring Lowry’s minutes in an attempt to keep him fresh for the playoffs. It hasn’t seemed to cost the Raptors wins and until it does there is literally no downside.

^{Kyle Lowry's Advanced Stats}

Throwing Lowry to the Wolves

There is this absurd idea that the Raptors should have tried to move Kyle Lowry this trade deadline. His $100M extension does eat a large portion of the Raptors cap space and his game will likely only decline from here. Both are fair points, but Lowry is still really good. The Fred VanVleet story is great. From being undrafted to becoming one of the rising talents in the NBA. He’s certainly capable of giving the Raptors 20 good minutes a night. In fact, in January VanVleet shot 51% from three and in February he’s shooting 48.4% from deep. That’s not all! This month Fred is also averaging 5+ assists per game which is 2 more assists than he is averaging this season. It’s definitely a travesty VanVleet was not selected to play in the rising stars game. However, I think it unfair to expect that Fred VanVleet would deliver the same production in the playoffs as Kyle Lowry. In the playoffs, starters tend to play closer to 40 minutes per game. Right now, the bulk of Fred’s minutes come against bench players. It’s possible one-day VanVleet will be able to rise to the occasion of an elite start point guard, but in a playoff series now, there’s almost no chance he would outplay someone like Kyrie Irving or John Wall. Now there’s no certainty Lowry would outplay either, but he has done well against both players over his career so he would surely have much better odds.

DeMar DeRozan had a career year last year and the Raptors franchise player is arguably having a better season this year. He may be the best player on the Raptors, but the Raptors won’t be able to make a deep post-season run without Kyle Lowry.