Toronto Raptors: Breaking down Kyle Lowry’s All-Star season

 Ever the present hero for the Toronto Raptors, Kyle Lowry has been voted into the NBA All-Star Game for the sixth time in his career.

When the point of technological singularity hits and artificial intelligence becomes unstoppable, there won’t be much to lean on but the memories. The memories of a civilization that once existed in some semblance of harmony will be all that remains. By then, the Toronto Raptors will likely have hung Kyle Lowry‘s jersey in the rafters.

Well, either that or he’ll be leading the human race towards a revolution all while being selected to his 25th straight All-Star appearance. The robots might not be the most benevolent of masters, but even they can realise that Lowry impacts winner more than most – even when he’s taking charges from the 8-foot Terminator-like robot that’s won MVP four years in a row. God, that guy is good.

In real life and this weird, twisted, but ultimately inevitable timeline, Kyle Lowry is a warrior. He’s cut from the same cloth as the likes of Aragorn, Luke Skywalker, and every mythical and fictional human being who has never given up. He feels like the everyman superhero, his game isn’t flashy nor is it blessed with elite athleticism, but it has all the makings of a player who was born to win, he just needed to figure out how.

His career could have been toast after being traded to the Raptors – the third team of his career – in July 2011, but he sought to do better. And now, here he stands before us. An NBA Champion, and a six-time NBA All-Star, Lowry has now reached the All-Star Game more times than anyone in Toronto Raptors history.

Like clockwork during his Raptors career, Lowry stands above the rest. He recently broke the Raptors’ franchise record for assists, and depending on what happens this summer – Lowry is an unrestricted free agent – he could well end up breaking DeMar DeRozan‘s record for the number of games played with the franchise (675).

This season has seen Lowry average 19.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game, shooting 41-percent from the field and 35-percent from three. His shooting from the field hasn’t flattered, he’s in the bottom-five in field goal percentage for players who average more than 15 points per game (min 30 games) but this is still an All-Star worthy season.

How?

Advanced numbers & hustle

Even if the advanced numbers don’t look as pretty, they still do Lowry a service. His overall PIPM has taken a dive of -2.44 from last season, one of the biggest weighted changes in the NBA, but he still sits with a PIPM of +1.82.

That still places him above the likes of Donovan Mitchell, Trae Young, and Russell Westbrook. To support the point, even more, he’s 12th among all guards in ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus at +2.49. Again, ahead of Russell Westbrook. Not to slander Westbrook, but one player impacts winning more than the other, and I don’t need to tell you who.

As usual, Lowry is among the leaders in charges drawn too, tallying 21 on the season – behind only Montrezl Harrell with 28 charges so far this season. There aren’t many guards who are willing to throw themselves in front of a 7-foot center on a bullrush, but Kyle Lowry is one of them. That’s the desire to win.

A pick-and-roll maestro

One of Lowry’s best traits is his undeniable ability to lift his teammates to another level, and a lot of that comes in the pick-and-roll. That’s where he can go to work, manipulating space and crafting opportunities for the likes of Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, or even just to open a lane for him to attack.

Lowry is averaging 5.4 pick-and-roll possessions per game, a fairly standard amount for a guard in the NBA. The Raptors haven’t run an awful lot of pick-and-roll plays this season – just 15.5 per game. With Lowry facilitating more than a third of those plays, he’s generating 1.04 points per possession, which puts him in the 89th percentile among all NBA players.

He’s an elite passer, which elevates him to a position of envy. There aren’t many players in the NBA who can see the court like Lowry, he can chuck a full-court pass immediately after an inbound or he can dissect a defense in a slow, methodical halfcourt setting.

Even now, operating with higher usage than last season, his turnover percentage has dropped significantly from 18.1-percent to 14.3-percent. Basically, that’s a smart player getting even smarter. Think about it.

Shooting

His shooting has taken a slight dip this season, but a lot of that can probably be attributed to an increase in shots. Lowry is currently averaging 14.3 field-goal attempts per game, the fourth-most of his career – harking back to the days where he and DeMar DeRozan would run a heavy dosage of isolation plays.

The key difference, he’s now taking 8.2 three-pointers per game, by far the most of his career. His shot selection has been exactly what the NBA has trended towards over the past few years. Eliminating the midrange shot and taking the most efficient attempt possible.

Lowry has taken 554 shots so far this season, with a field-goal percentage of 41-percent. That isn’t particularly flattering, by any means, but he’s shooting 56-percent from less than five feet in. As a six-foot guard, that’s a number you can probably live with. It’s comparable to Kemba Walker, Collin Sexton, Ja Morant, and Spencer Dinwiddie.

What stands out is that 77-percent of his attempts at the rim are coming unassisted. This season has shown a sharp increase in Lowry’s drives to the basket, and that number backs it up. He’s driving to the rim 10.4 times per game, almost three more times per game than last season.

Winning

This is it in a nutshell. Ever since Lowry stepped into the facility way back when, the Raptors have continuously found themselves in winning positions. Including this season – where the Raptors look destined to crack 50 wins for the fifth season in a row – the team has finished with a winning record for the last seven seasons.

That sort of longevity is difficult in the NBA when so much can change so fast. The Raptors have undergone a lot of changes in the past seven years, but through it all, two things have remained.

Kyle Lowry and winning. The Raptors sit with a record of 35-14, good for the second seed in the East. In a season where a lot of talking heads expected the Raptors to struggle – and miss the playoffs entirely – they are excelling once again and look primed to make a run in the playoffs.

By now, most people have figured out that it isn’t a coincidence. Lowry impacts winning basketball more than most players in the league and he’s a deserving All-Star reserve once more. This is just a reminder.