Raptors Rapture
Fansided

Toronto Raptors: Ranking every contract from best to worst

By Vimal Sivakumar

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - 2017/09/22: The entrance of the Air Canada Centre. There is sunlight reflecting from the glass. The famous place will be renamed starting on January 2018. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - 2017/09/22: The entrance of the Air Canada Centre. There is sunlight reflecting from the glass. The famous place will be renamed starting on January 2018. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
9 of 11
Next
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 27: Kyle Lowry
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 27: Kyle Lowry /

8.  Kyle Lowry

Contract: 2 years — $31M (18/19), $33.2M (19/20)

Kyle Lowry is 32 years old. Over the next two seasons, he is owed a total of $64,296,296. By the end of his deal, Lowry will 34 years of age.

For someone earning that much money (ranked as the 6th highest paid player in the NBA this past season, according to businessinsider.com), it seems fair to expect Lowry to have a better Player Impact Estimate (PIE) number than many of his competitors, particularly in the postseason, when it matters most.

Unfortunately, however, PIE numbers provided by stats.nba.com show that Lowry had a lower PIE (13) than the following 4 players in the 17/18 playoffs:

Larry Nance Jr (3 year NBA veteran, PIE:13.1, Salary: 1.4 M), Ben Simmons (Rookie, PIE: 13.8, Salary: $6.6M), TJ McConnell (3 year NBA veteran, PIE: 14.3, Salary: $1.4M) and Clint Capela (4 year NBA veteran, PIE: 15.6, Salary: $2.3M).

Effectively, this proves the relative lack of value that Lowry provides to Toronto in the playoffs.

For players with such little NBA experience, earning fractions of Lowry’s salary, these PIE number comparisons should surely favour Lowry. Unfortunately, though, they simply do not.

Beyond that, according to stats.nba.com, Lowry had the 2nd worst defensive rating this postseason, as well as the league’s 7th worst net rating (min. 10 GP and min. 32 MPG).

Why below DeRozan

It is no secret that Lowry is a great performer in the regular season. Over the last 5 regular seasons, he has averaged no less than 16.2 points and 6.4 assists while playing in no fewer than 60 games.

However, what truly makes his contract one of the team’s worst is his lack of playoff production, as described above.

Combining the fact that he has biggest cap hit on the team (24.3%, according to spotrac.com), and the reality that he is now getting even older, the postseason impact that he has for the Toronto Raptors has simply not been strong enough to justify his contract at this stage of his career.

Home/Raptors News