The Toronto Raptors captured a lot of our nation’s attention when they won the NBA Championship last year. Most of you are probably saying “duh”, but in a country with such a hockey-heavy agenda, new found success in a different sport usually inspires a huge wave of young athletes to start playing said sport, or at least watch more closely. Last season really revolved around Kawhi Leonard for the Raps, due to his meteoric rise, becoming one of the best players in the NBA. That, combined with a championship win and playing for a brand new team is literal gold for the American media. The story-line was really too perfect. I’m imagining so many Canadian kids begged their parents to buy them a basketball hoop after watching Kawhi barn-storm his way through talented Philadelphia and Milwaukee squads in last seasons playoffs. When Kawhi departed to the LA Clippers this summer, The Raptors went back to being majorly ignored by the American media. Kawhi had an attractive NBA story-line following him, he was traded due to being unhappy on the San Antonio Spurs, but was also traded for beloved Raptors star Demar Derozan. That garners a huge media following, and deservedly so. However, some media outlets were just interested in him as a player and not the team he was playing for. In ESPN’s pre-season predictions poll for this season, they hypothesized that the Raptors wouldn’t be above the 6th seed in the East without Kawhi. Bleacher Report also had the Raps around the 5th/6th seed in the East, but the glaring parts of these preseason predictions was the win/loss records. BR - (44 wins - 38 losses), ESPN (45 wins - 37 losses).
If you’ve been watching the Raptors this season, these predictions ended up being severely inaccurate. To be fair, the Eastern Conference as a whole has been way better than anyone expected. Miami and Indiana have both turned into elite teams, making the top 6 teams in the East almost interchangeable in skill level. For the Raptors, you can’t deny how incredible Pascal Siakam has been this season - his rapid improvement is damn near unheard of. However, Siakam recently went down with an injury, as well as Norman Powell and Marc Gasol. So you would figure their record would take a massive hit with all that production being sidelined at the start of the season. Let’s take a look at their record through 38 games last year versus this year: 2019 - (27 wins - 11 losses) 2020 - (25 wins - 13 losses). Alright, so what’s going on? How have they managed to stay afloat with all of the injuries and Kawhi’s departure? First of all, kudos to all the Raptors bench players who have made a huge step up to become a part of this championship culture so quickly. Raptors fans are discovering the talents of guys like Chris Boucher, Terence Davis, Matt Thomas, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to name a few. How do you become enveloped this quickly into a championship culture? It’s because of Kyle Lowry. More specifically, it’s because of his leadership on the court.
I’ve been watching Kyle Lowry for what seems like an eternity, and have admittedly not been a fan in the past. I was genuinely upset when they decided to get rid of Jose Calderon in favor of Lowry in 2012 when they could only afford to keep one of them. What a horrible take that was. Since that decision was made, Kyle turned into a 5 time all-star, and has led the raptors into the playoffs every single year. Any die-hard Raptors fan who’s been watching the team since the Vince Carter days should just sit back and appreciate that more. Everyone sat through an Andrea Bargnani era that made us all straight up sad. Continuous playoff appearances shouldn’t be forgotten so easily. Kyle isn’t acknowledged nearly enough for his accomplishments and abilities because so much of what he does on the court can’t be accurately represented through the stats.
Kyle had commonly struggled a bit in the playoffs up until last season. The killer instincts that are required in playoff basketball seemed at times to be out of reach for him. Though I acknowledge that several of his previous playoff appearances have been hindered from injuries. After another dismal Raptors Game 1 performance against Orlando in the first round of last season’s playoffs, one of the funniest videos of all time resurfaced:
Immediately after the come back of this video, Kyle simply punted all of the previous playoff baggage and stereotypes imposed onto him off a cliff. It became evident to me that Kyle’s support system on the Raptors in previous years simply just wasn’t where it needed to be. He was providing a serious amount of production in multiple areas/aspects of the game, but these aspects weren’t always recognized. Kyle is no doubt the heart and soul of this entire decade of Raptors basketball, but what really caught my eye is his last 10 games with the seriously depleted Raptors squad. His averages are 24 ppg/9 apg/6 rpg over this recent 10 game stretch, displaying some serious MVP qualities along the way. He’s been an absolute buzz-saw in 4th quarters this season, providing excess amounts of clutch playmaking and shooting.
What most NBA fans simply don’t understand is how much unique talent Kyle Lowry has, even today. Much like the ring in The Lord of the Rings books and movies, Kyle’s championship ring appears to have made him immortal. He has created a style of play for himself that no one else in the league seems to have. No one in the NBA can play at an elite level with the physical attributes Kyle has, at least no one who’d be nearly as effective. An extremely unique talent + championship ring + probable Hall of Fame career + new found confidence = Immortality in my book. Sit some young aspiring basketball players down and have them watch Kyle do his thing, they’ll witness a surplus of winning traits. In almost every game you watch, you’ll notice these specific qualities:
Underrated Defense
If you turn on your TV and the Raptors are playing, you will see Kyle Lowry take a charge and I’d be willing to gamble some serious money on that. In the 2017-2018 NBA season, Kyle had taken more charges than 23 teams COMBINED about half way through the season. He is in second place for charges taken this season, just behind Montrezl Harrel, a guy who is much more commonly around the rim on defense than Kyle would be (easier to position for charges). Most guys who get paid 30 million/year don’t take charges, they don’t want the risk of wear and tear on their body. Kyle would draw a charge on an American M113 Tank to get the ball back for his team. He’s drawn charges on Lebron James, which is the exact same thing anyways. Lowry has spoken about this before, saying that he can’t really dunk on anyone, can’t really block anyone, so he attempts to build momentum for his team in alternate ways. To add to this, his on-ball defense is super physical and uncomfortable for most guys to play against and he has the weight to cut you off once and bump you completely off your path. When his strength is combined with his lateral quickness, it essentially makes him a cannonball, and no one likes being defended by a cannonball. He’s been able to switch screens with forwards, and defend 6’10 guys in the post successfully on occasion. One of the best examples of this is Demar Derozan matching up against Lowry last season after having been teammates for so long under the Raptors. Derozan has some great post footwork, and naturally decided to try and take Kyle into the post and shoot over the shorter 6’0 guard (Derozan is 6’7). He couldn’t move Kyle, like not even an inch. Demar looked like he was trying to back down a silverback gorilla. Demar acknowledged in a post game interview that "A lot of times (I like to) get a mismatch with a smaller guy on me, but obviously Kyle, with his fat ass, he knew how to guard me”. They’re best friends so this is a) hilarious and b) relative to how Kyle is such a good defender. He has Saquon Barkley levels of power in the lower half of his body. Between the charges drawn and turnovers he forces, he single-handedly creates 5-6 extra possessions per game for the Raptors. Something like this can easily be the difference between a win and a loss, and last time I checked those count for something.
Athletic Profile
I’d like to take a moment to examine a quote from Kyle Lowry’s coach at William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia.
"He made simple passes look sexy," Lange says. "He used pump fakes in the lane to draw fouls. His weakside defense was so advanced. He's the most physical player on the floor, but it doesn't look athletic -- he's waddling around with that body. Nothing he's doing looks anything like what you see from kids on a Wednesday afternoon during the evaluation period. He's been like this forever."
My guy said “WADDLING”...wow. In a league that is so big on physical profile and athleticism, Kyle doesn’t exactly have intriguing qualities in either department. Kyle Lowry is 6’0 and now weighs about 195 lbs, he used to weigh about 210 lbs earlier in his career. Just so you all get the point, this photo actually exists:
HAHAHAHAHA. Okay but seriously, Kyle’s athletic profile has often been determined as a downside. He did lose a few pounds, but he still has a thicker frame compared to the majority of NBA point guards. Instead of this being a major downside, he’s made his weight and center of mass a significant part of his game. He is so much stronger and compact than the guys that guard him, he’s able to bump defenders off of him and use a massive catalogue of step-throughs, up and unders, and step backs to create space. He’s not incredibly fast for a point guard either (hence WADDLING), but the man can change directions and turn on a dime at an elite level. So even if you are strong enough to cut him off, he spins off you. You cut him off again, he puts the ball behind his back. You cut him off again, shot fake, step through, shot fake, fadeaway, bucket directly on your forehead. This is such a major lesson for so many young ball players, you’re not always going to be as athletically gifted as some of your counterparts, but that doesn’t need to be an excuse. Kyle adds value to his team in mostly every single aspect outside of athleticism, I’m sure there are things you can do to add value to your team outside of your physical gifts as well.
Playmaking and Shooting
A lot of Lowry’s stats get overlooked due to him not being a top points per game type of player. That singular stat is something that is emphasized much more consistently than others. It’s completely flown under the radar that Kyle can flat out stroke the 3 ball and he’s shot 38% from outside since he became a Toronto Raptor. He was even in the 3 point contest twice, in 2016 and 2018. Remember? No? Good, me neither (neither of those went great for Kyle). That percentage is more than a reliable shooter though, it’s borderline top level, but there are just so many other guys you think of first when it comes to 3 point shooting. The exact same can be said for Kyle when it comes to playmaking. Last season he averaged 8.7 assists per game, he was SECOND in the league next to legendary stat-padder Russell Westbrook. He’s become one of the best floor generals in the NBA. He’s not only making plays, he’s calling out sets and positioning his teammates in their ideal spots, It’s like having your head coach on the court with you. Kyle is famously a prominent “hockey assist” point guard, meaning he creates so many plays that have him pass to someone who makes the assist. His ability to get in the lane despite his lack of agility is what makes this happen and he creates a kick-out pass situation that usually leads to a 2 on 1 advantage. Lowry’s ability to collapse the defense was huge for their recent title win and it got guys like Kawhi and Siakam a couple extra easy buckets each game. Things like that really add up over a 7 game series. So if we take the “hockey assists” into consideration, he’s playmaking beyond any other point guard in the entire league last season. But who do you think of when someone says playmaker? I guarantee it wasn’t him, but it should be.
Killer Instinct
There are 2 games in Kyle Lowry’s recent 10 game “you can’t kill me” tour that really caught my eye on how much he’s developed as a clutch competitor. Firstly, there was the 30 point 4th quarter comeback at home versus Dallas, where Kyle decided to become the human torch and drop 20 points of his 32 points in that quarter to lead the comeback. That’s what champions do, and those abilities have started showing up more and more ever since that championship win. I used to hate it when Matt Devlin (Raptors home commentator) would start screaming “DON’T POKE THE BEAR” when someone would piss Kyle off and he’d respond with some elevated play. It always felt a little empty because most of us didn’t believe he could elevate his game when it came to matching up against superstar talent.
Was there really any reason that a top 4 team in the NBA should not “poke the bear”? Now that Kyle has a ring, I can safely say to all of you; don’t poke the fucking bear. He closed out game 6 of the NBA finals against the Warriors last year with 26 points/10 assists/7 rebounds and an overall +/- of +16, a performance that is seriously hard to forget (immortal). If anyone was going to close the series for the Raps, it had to be him, he was their ride or die from the beginning. That game combined with the fact that he and Fred Van Vleet gave Stephen Curry nightmares on both ends of the court the entire series is the real kicker. No one even had to make him mad, he made sure everyone knew that this wasn’t like any other playoffs he’d been apart of, he was out to assassinate. I’m currently watching him have an inefficient shooting game against Brooklyn while I’m writing this, and he just decided to eat them alive in the 4th quarter with back to back dagger 3’s to seal the game. This of course was directly after Brooklyn’s centre Jarrett Allen pissed him off on one of the previous possessions. Matt Devlin is screaming “DON’T POKE THE BEAR” and so am I. Kyle is pointing to his ring finger and holding it up to the crowd, life is good. He’s become someone who can simply turn it on when he wants to, and only a select few NBA players can do that. You will never, ever, be able to take anything away from Kyle Lowry.
I think a good way to sum up Kyle’s abilities is to credit his level of competitiveness. He’s had to scrap for everything his entire career to get where he wanted to be. The 2006 24th overall pick from Villanova was told he left college too early, he didn’t even start at Villanova for a majority of his time in college. Allen Ray and Randy Foye were 2 of his teammates labeled better than he was as a draft pick, neither of those guys are in the NBA anymore (for the record, I love both of those guys). He had a suspect perimeter jumper, and would force the issue too much to be a reliable floor general. He had a poor NCAA Tournament and tore his ACL in his freshman year. He wasn’t labeled a good prospect. However, you can’t concretely measure drive, desire, or heart.
This guy has been playing his entire career with a Lamborghini engine, hoping someone would help him build a nice car around that engine. The Raptors owner Masai Ujiri decides to trade for a nice new frame (Kawhi Leonard), and promotes one of the passengers to drive the car (Head Coach: Nick Nurse). He drafts one of those dope doors that open upwards and picks up another mint condition one weirdly from a garage sale (Pascal Siakam and undrafted Fred Van Vleet). He trades in the old seats for nice new ones (Marc Gasol), the same tires but some new fresh rims to match the frame (Serge Ibaka), and puts a hula girl ornament on the dashboard (Danny Green I guess). What’s that? Bose surround sound speakers they never used but Nick Nurse decided to fire them up and they’re amazing? (Norman Powell). These are all sweet accessories, but you can’t move without an engine. They’ve had the engine the entire time. Sometimes it takes a while to build a vehicle, but it all starts and ends with how the car runs. Toronto runs on Kyle Lowry. You don’t need to be the fancy-looking parts of the car to be a successful basketball player. Be a competitor no matter what your frame might look like, no matter what someone says about your abilities. Anyone can make winning plays, why not you? Be your teams culture, be your teams championship DNA.
(Post Edit : The Raptors are now currently 32-14 and 2nd in the Eastern Conference. Kyle continues to flash his ring finger in people faces, please build him a statue Toronto.)
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