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Tim BontempsESPN
Toronto Raptors goalkeeper Kyle Lowry doesn’t know where his future lies this season or even after this year’s deadline. But he is sure of one thing: whenever he ends his career, he will retire in Raptors uniform.
“Let me say this: I’ll retire as a Toronto Raptor,” Lowry said after the team trained Wednesday night before the start of the second half of the season in Tampa, Florida, against the Atlanta Hawks.
However, what Lowry was unwilling to commit to, he returned to Toronto as a free agent when his contract expired this summer, or even to say for good that he would be with the team beyond the two-week trading deadline.
“What I would like to see is to finish this season as strong as possible,” Lowry said.
“At the end of the day, I, my agent, the organization, everyone has to do what’s best for them, right? Everyone has to do what’s best for them and the situation.
“Who knows what this is, right? Who knows what it will be, who knows what that time will say? For me, I know that I still play at a good enough level, where I can help a team, I can help us and we are improving “.
Lowry’s name has appeared repeatedly in recent weeks as a potential business target for teams. The Raptors have two games under .500 after being among the best teams in the East in recent years, and the commercial market itself is shrinking after so many star players changed teams or signed extensions with current ones in recent seasons. . He could be the biggest impact player available.
That is, if Lowry is actually available. Lowry, as he has repeatedly done, praised the team’s young core, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and Norman Powell, for their growth.
But he didn’t expand his future too much, other than he clearly followed a recent report he had told people he was leaving Toronto, which he said was not true.
“I don’t really get involved, and I don’t mind because rumors are rumors and always will be,” Lowry said. “But when something is said that does not come verbally from me and I did not say anything, then it reaches the point” Did you register me saying that? I want to know who the source is, because the source is me. ‘
“It simply came to our notice then. I don’t really care about that. It’s just a matter of defending myself for a quick second. “
Lowry, who has an average of 18 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.9 assists this season, is still playing high enough to be both swingers for a team struggling in the deadline if he is traded and to get a hard salary as a free agent this summer, whether he is traded or not.
In the end, however, he insisted that he did not know what would happen on both fronts.
“For me, personally, whatever happens, we’ll see,” Lowry said. “I do not know. We do not know. Like, honestly, I don’t know. If I could tell you, if I could look at a crystal ball, I’d tell you, but I don’t know what the crystal ball says. I do not know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what they’re thinking, I’m thinking. We’ll get to that point and we’ll figure it out. “
While the Raptors will be without several players – VanVleet, Siakam, Anunoby, Patrick McCaw and Malachi Flynn – due to NBA health and safety protocols, they will get back head coach Nick Nurse, who was out before All- All-Star Break.
The assistant said that while he will definitely train against the Hawks, the five assistant coaches who had also been in protocol with him will probably not be able to join him for that game.
The nurse took time on Wednesday to defend herself and her coaching staff after a report came out last week saying they were guilty of not following protocols.
“Oh, I don’t think anyone would have any idea what he’s talking about,” the nurse said. “This is a very unfair thing, very speculative to say, unless you have video evidence of it, because I don’t think it’s very cool to say that.
“I think our coaching staff realized and followed the rules as best they could. It’s not easy … the players have a hard job to do, but they don’t wear masks. The referees have work to do – they don’t wear masks. Coaches have a hard job to do and wear masks, which is a little harder.
“But I think we’ve entered an unfortunate race. Certainly not that we’re not really trying to adhere to protocols as best we can.”