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Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey was in for a rough night's sleep knowing his star point guard Kyle Lowry was soon to be shipped to the New York Knicks for Iman Shumpert, Metta World Peace and a future first-rounder back in 2013.
“When I went to bed, I understood Kyle was being traded, we were going in another direction,” Casey said, according to Fred Kerber of The New York Post. “Then lo and behold, they changed their mind here. Thank goodness. I didn’t want to lose Kyle, his feistiness, his toughness. Sometimes the best deals you make are the ones you don’t. It was a difference-maker, that deal being turned down by New York.”
As it turns out, the Knicks pulled the plug on the deal, keeping Lowry on the roster, which would prove to be one of the best decisions the franchise made, garnering four consecutive trips to the playoffs since and a fifth one on the way.
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“Of course I’ve thought about it,” Lowry said of the “What if?” aspects, “But ancient history. It’s a situation I can’t really think about because it didn’t happen.”
“But not my fault,” he added laughing.
The Raptors have managed to stick with their promising backcourt of Lowry and DeMar DeRozan — a tandem that has proven one of the most dynamic in the league in recent years — now sitting atop the East with a comfortable 3.5 game lead over the Boston Celtics.
Lowry was barely a starting caliber point guard back in the 2013-14 season but has evolved into an absolute dynamo — an evolution that has helped this Toronto team be where it is at the moment.
