Ujiri remains confident in Lowry's future with Raptors

Josh Lewenberg

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - That Kyle Lowry has reportedly experienced some recent unrest with the Raptors, even to the point of doubting his future in Toronto, shouldn't come as much of a surprise to those who have been paying attention.

It's been plain to see for the better part of the last four months. From his ominous comments ahead of February's trade deadline (“Something gotta give, something gotta change. I have an idea [of what] but I'mma keep my mouth shut, keep it professional”) to his negative body language throughout the playoffs and after his team's disappointing elimination, Lowry has made little attempt to hide his angst. He rarely does. That's just Lowry.

Having some familiarity with the temperamental and often combative all-star point guard also means you know his mood can change on a dime. It may have already.

On Monday, a report in the Toronto Star indicated that as of “mid-May” teams around the league were informed Lowry – a free agent-to-be – had “zero interest” in returning to the Raptors. (Lowry has since denied those claims via Twitter.)

What was going on in mid-May? The Raptors, who had at least expected to challenge the reigning NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers, were just swept out of the postseason. Sidelined with an ankle injury, Lowry was forced to watch Games 3 and 4, helpless as the final nails were hammered into his team's coffin. Was he frustrated? Probably. Can you blame him? No, probably not. Could he or his people have said things to reflect that, perhaps overreacting in the moment? It's certainly possible.

In the weeks that have followed – the early days of the off-season, when cooler heads tend to prevail – Raptors president Masai Ujiri is confident he's getting a different, more optimistic read on Lowry's intentions.

"He says he wants to come back," Ujiri told the local media on Tuesday. "Listen, I know there is speculation. We all have ups and downs. There are times when he has been down and there are times when we are down. It happens to every team, every player. People go through it. This is rumour season and everyone is going to make a big deal out of everything. I know what Kyle has told me. Kyle has been here working out and he actually just left. I know what he has been telling me and I can only believe what he tells me, not the famous sources. We will see how that goes."

Ujiri knows Lowry better than most. He knows Lowry's quirks and has helped him channel them in a way that has allowed the 11-year veteran to find success, more so than anybody had before. They have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship over their four seasons together in Toronto. Ahead of the 2013-14 campaign, Ujiri's first in charge, he sat Lowry down and challenged him to be a better player, a better leader and a better person – a turning point in his career. As he's thrived, so has the organization that gave him an opportunity he had been clamouring for.

Over the past month, since that mid-May period in which Lowry allegedly expressed a desire to leave, the two have had a couple meetings, both of them productive, according to Ujiri. Lowry has been working out in Toronto. Last week he took some of his younger teammates to a Pilates class. If he ever checked out, Ujiri believes he has bought back in.

There are several variables that will determine whether Lowry is back in a Raptors uniform next fall, especially if he is indeed open to the idea of a change.

The first is his market, which appears to be shrinking by the day. With their acquisition of the first-overall pick in Thursday's draft – soon-to-be point guard Markelle Fultz – Lowry's hometown Philadelphia 76ers are presumably out of the running. While it's unlikely he would have gone there to be part of a rebuilding effort, that's one less team that figures to drive up his price. Provided they strike out on Chris Paul, the San Antonio Spurs may be the only team that could make him a competitive offer with a better chance to win, but there are questions as to whether Gregg Popovich would welcome him, given his cantankerous reputation.

Assuming his priorities are to win and to get paid, in either order, he may not have many options outside of the Raptors. Then it comes down to dollars and cents and, perhaps most importantly, term. How much is Toronto comfortable paying a 31-year-old point guard with an injury history, and for how long?

The Raptors want Lowry back. They need him back if they hope to continue competing at a high level in the Eastern Conference, but not at any cost. Unlike DeMar DeRozan's quick and painless free agent experience last summer, when the guard agreed to terms on July 1 without holding any other meetings, this is almost certainly going to require a lengthier negotiation and significantly more posturing, which in many ways has already begun.

Lowry knows he has the future of an entire organization in the palm of his hand. That's not a responsibility he takes lightly but it's also not something he's fretting over. He's wanted this for a long time, to be the guy that's important enough to make a franchise-altering decision. He's earned it.

By all accounts, Ujiri is a strong judge of character. He's the guy you want in this spot. If he's getting someone's poker face, more often than not, he'll sniff it out. Lowry has told him he wants to stay and he believes him, which is not something we should take lightly.

Still, Ujiri has been around long enough to know that anyone can end up on the wrong end of a bluff. He was the assistant general manager under Bryan Colangelo when Chris Bosh left Toronto for the Heat back in 2010 and remembers thinking – or at least hoping – that the all-star forward would stick around. He's sensitive to some of the warning signs now, having been through this before, and is confident he's able to read players better as a result.

This is unlikely to be an amicable split if that's the direction it's headed. Neither Ujiri nor Lowry enjoys being misled. No one does. But given what's at stake here – a franchise, careers, legacies, relationships – the fallout could be messy if mistruths have been told in the process.

Lowry has been the lifeblood of this Raptors team since Ujiri helped inspire his emergence as one of the NBA's premier players. Fittingly, the decision both gentlemen make after free agency opens on July 1 – to either go forward together or part ways – will be the first domino in a monumental off-season for Toronto.

Ujiri and his staff have studied approximately five different directions they could choose to take the organization – from contending to tanking and everything in between – and say they are prepared to go down any of those paths under the right scenario. No one can be sure where they're headed, at least not now, not in late June.

They can't even be sure until Lowry signs on the dotted line, or doesn't.