Report: Heat currently not trying to trade Kyle Lowry

Jan 24, 2023 - 12:04 AM

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Kyle Lowry has had an interesting couple years here in South Beach. He was a big contributor on last season’s team that featured Miami ending up as the number 1 seed in a loaded Eastern Conference. This season though, has been a little different for the veteran point guard. Lowry has had some vintage performances, but at the same time he has also had some head scratching performances.

Some games he looks like he could be a championship level point guard as other games show that maybe it is time the former all star plays off the bench. There was a recent article I wrote where I mentioned Miami was 6-1 in games Lowry hasn’t played.

Everything i noted in that article was indeed correct, but looking back on it maybe that 6-1 record could have been a fluke stat. Right after posting it, Miami lost a game without Lowry in Atlanta. Then he came back from injury against the New Orleans Pelicans and the team had arguably the best performance that they have had all season. Miami won in blowout fashion, and everything was going their way both defensively and offensively.

A big thing to note in that game as well, is that Miami had their full rotation available. Is that a sign of what Kyle Lowry and the Heat can do at absolute full strength? Have people, including myself, been a little harsh on Lowry playing with new faces in and out of the line up all year long due to injuries? Perhaps, as the Heat have strung together some nice wins recently, maybe all it took was for guys to slowly become healthy all at the same time.
That leads into the report that Lowry may be sticking around after all.

This is something that makes sense, and also something Heat fans should be open to. Being a point guard makes you in charge of running the offense, and having so many different line ups to work with could definitely cause some consistency issues for someone like Lowry. At the end of the day, he is a winner. He is a proven NBA champion and a great locker room presence. He has helped players guards like Gabe Vincent and even Tyler Herro become better.

Kyle Lowry’s impact goes beyond the box score, and we all know how close he is both on and off the court with Jimmy Butler. A player like Butler would not have been so sure of bringing in Lowry if it didn’t mean the team would benefit from it. Yes, Lowry has had inconsistent individual performances, but he isn’t in this line up to be the main guy.

Miami has player’s like Butler, Herro, Bam Adebayo, even Victor Oladipo to take offensive responsibilities. Lowry is there to help be a leader, get guys involved, and bring a winning DNA. His occasional bad performance gets too much blame when there are clearly other important problems; the big man depth. The Heat have been consistently getting destroyed in rebounding all season long. They have an undrafted rookie taking back up big minutes to give Adebayo a breather.

To go along with having an undersized starting PF in Caleb Martin, who is a much more natural wing player as the 3. Miami has bigger issues to deal with come trade deadline, and personally I don’t think the team’s PG is anywhere near as big an issue as beefing up the front court.

Heat Nation shouldn’t give up on “QB1” just yet. He is a player that makes teams better, not worse.
And although he has shown signs of aging, there is a chance that there could be more production left on route to another playoff run from Lowry.