I can see Lowry and Bargnani for Cousins but Hayes and Brooks would not be thrown in without extra pieces from Toronto. Cousins commands more. It would ve hilarious to see Brooks and Lowry back on the same team competing for a starting job. Oh the drama! LOL!
Hard to say how much faith to put in this rumor. I would be surprised if they traded him as he is the best player on the Raptors. On the other hand, there was a twitter from one of the Raptor beat reporters that in a recent players only meeting, the entire team called out Bargnani and Lowry. Bargnani was being bashed because of his crappy defensive efforts. Lowry was being called out for playing too selfishly. Not sure I see this happening, but given the Raptors' record and recent wins sans Barganani and Lowry I'm not sure I can rule it out either. If Lowry does end up traded, that's the 2nd team where his clashes will have resulted in a trade...
So here's a thing: http://www.thestar.com/sports/baske...kyle-lowry-to-take-back-seat-to-jose-calderon They might as well trade Lowry at this point, and try to get some value for him. That franchise has no idea how to treat good players and Lowry is just going to walk in the off-season as they subject him to that kind of indignity. Casey will have been fired already, Calderon will continue to lose basketball games for the Raptors into the year 2023, and some third party is going to lock Lowry up for 3 years / 25 and get a hell of a nice bargain in the process.
Rox fans lucky they have Morey Colangelo suxs as GM Bargnani and Lowery need to be traded. Raptors are winning without them.
I bet morey didnt want Lowry because he knew he could be a locker room problem - which is why he made the trade to be basically a top lottery pick... 3-10 pick..Having a good idea that if things were bad with Lowry and the team, he would create a negative enviroment and basically make the Raptors garbage... But I highly doubt Morey knew that, he isnt a mad scientist genius or anything.
Morey traded him because he got a lottery pick in return which was necessary to acquire a star (Harden). Morey has said he would have been happy with Lowry as the starter, but Lowry is not a superstar, so he was expendable. However, Morey would welcome him back if circumstances presented him with the opportunity.
My days, the Raptors are constantly climbing over themselves to pay above market value for assets that, once acquired, rapidly fall in value, which they then turn around and sell. It's like climbing down the value chain. How much did they overpay Landry Fields? Part of this is just structural--NBA players don't want to pay the extra taxes of being in Canada and being in an ostensibly foreign country. If the NBA wants to keep a presence in Canada, they should look to subsidize player that go to play there for that differential.
Colangelo is doing things to protect his job. As long as he looks like he's moving pieces around and can blame players, he is secure. Never mind if he's actually keeping the better players.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=cpzuqlv Chicago sends a 1st rounder to Toronto. They save 5 million dollars a year with the new duo, and have someone to play until Rose fully returns (at which point they could either deal Lowry-whose contract would be expiring- or try to play him at the two). Toronto sheds Bargnani for a slight upgrade with Boozer, and gets a 1st rounder. But, more importantly- and the key to all of this- is that Colangelo can keep his job.
Are the rockets just in there for the hell of it? Or is it because Morey tried getting in on the deal and couldn't get it done?
I know it's not all Kyle's fault, but Espn.com had something last week about the Toronto W/L record when Kyle starts. 2-13 and 2-14 when he plays. One win was against MIN w/o Love & Rubio and the other was against PHO. Without Kyle playing they're 7-7. He was probably having his best season numbers wise before he got hurt after 16 games this year, so small sample size. Add in last year was probably his career best per36 minute #'s with only 47 games played you have to say the Rockets made off like bandits because Lowry might be at his ceiling and Harden has lots of upside.
FWISW Charles Barkley just said on NBATV that Lowry should have been an all star last season because he was having a career year, but the fans voted for Nash. He also said Lowry probably will never get another chance. He also said Howard and Kevin Garnett didn't deserve to be all stars this year. I'm not sure if they said anything about Lin or Harden
Why is Casey throwing Lowry under the bus? They're probably winning because Bargs is out. That said, Lowry doesn't seem to be a good leader -- that's what Casey seems to be implying. I don't think you pump up Jose's trade value at the expense of your starter's rep and feelings.
Casey's job was in jeopardy until Calderon and the Raptors went on their sad little streak. It's not surprising that Casey is now sticking by Calderon now. Basically, Casey is flailing around looking for any way to keep a job he is wildly unqualified to have anyway. He's juggling lineups, trying to find something that "works." Except undermining the confidence of his players and crapping all over his team's best player is obviously something that will not "work" in the long run. Sometimes assistant coaches are given the head coaching job and don't do well. They're too overmatched--just not head coaching material. Then they get tense when that brief climb up the ladder is put in jeopardy, so they compound bad coaching with more bad coaching. Doesn't mean they're bad people, these things happen all the time. That's where Dwane Casey is right now. It's a bad scene. He has no idea what he's doing at this point, and his decisions are informed less by concern for the team and more out of a desire to outlast the GM who made the mistake of hiring him. The dust still hasn't settled in Toronto. There is still a trade to be made, a coach to be fired. We'll see how this shakes out.
