Toronto Raptors: How the Houston Rockets ruined a Kyle Lowry trade to the Miami Heat

The Toronto Raptors might’ve traded away Norman Powell in exchange for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood, but they managed to hold onto franchise legend Kyle Lowry. With the Philadelphia 76ers out of the picture following the George Hill trade, the Miami Heat looked like a potential suitor before the Houston Rockets ruined everything.

While Masai Ujiri and the Heat were locked in a battle of wills, likely due to Miami’s unwillingness to surrender a young guard like Tyler Herro, the Rockets gave Victor Oladipo away to Miami in exchange for a package centered around beat-up guard Avery Bradley and Canadian big man Kelly Olynyk.

Rafael Stone likely realized he made a mistake by sending Caris LeVert to the Indiana Pacers and Jarrett Allen to the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of the James Harden deal, and he wanted to rectify that by turning a disgruntled impending free agent in Oladipo into assets.

However, doing so was the literal worst-case scenario for the Raptors, as their grand plan for a Lowry deal completely fell apart after this.

The Rockets took all leverage away from Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors

Toronto lost all leverage the minute Houston picked up the phone. Why would Riley give away one or two of his prized young guards when he had the Rockets on Line 2 begging on their hands and knees for Miami to take Oladipo, who has averaged 21.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game this season, off of their hands?

Ujiri should be credited for sticking to his guns and not giving into Pat Riley’s demands for the sake of making a deal, but there is no way around it. Toronto got the short end of the stick. Toronto and Miami were locked in a battle of wills, and Houston showed up to offer an easy way out.

While still a bit farfetched, the Raptors are just four games out of the No. 5 seed. If they want to make the playoffs, their postseason plan just got infinitely. Miami added their elite point guard, and they got rid of two subpar offensive players to do it.

After giving Harden to the Brooklyn Nets for a bag of chips and mystery box draft picks, helping out Miami, extending Toronto’s losing streak, and ruining a potential trade for Ujiri, the Rockets and Raptors aren’t on the best terms.

Ujiri managed to get a young guard that could stick around for multiple seasons in Trent, so he didn’t have to move Lowry. While it would’ve been nice to raid Miami’s depth, a desperate Stone was willing to accept 15 cents on the dollar for Oladipo, and that screwed the Raptors out of a super-young, super-talented backcourt.