Is it just me, or don’t you wish the Miami Heat would go ahead and trade Kyle Lowry?
Their idea to trade him isn’t some state secret. It’s the cold, hard and increasingly welcome truth of their disappointing marriage. It’s coming either at Thursday’s trade deadline or, more likely, over the summer when the larger NBA landscape can be surveyed.
Once, and not too long ago, numbers that defined Lowry were gaudy ones involving points, assists and winning plays. Now his defining number is $29 million.
That’s his annual salary in the second of a three-year deal. It will be salary-cap ballast either to unload for little in return or, cross your fingers, as part of a packaged deal for the elusive whale that team president Pat Riley looks for on the high seas.
Think: Tyler Herro and Lowry and a No. 1 draft pick packaged for Washington’s Bradley Beal in July, if that stirs your heart. Or perhaps the annual idea of Kevin Durant?
That’s why you want the Heat to get to the trade of Lowry. It will tell you what their next chapter might look like when it comes, if it actually does.
Two summers ago, Lowry was the one coming in as an aging whale. Some will say he still is if you’re talking about his shape. In a franchise where playing at a hard-body weight is a central pillar, Lowry arrived as an outsized outsider. He wasn’t going to change after a star’s career, either. Why would he?
That’s not the actual issue with him, either. If there’s a prime lesson over what’s become a disappointing run with Lowry, it’s that sometimes when you sign older players they’re already too old.
Lowry, who will be 37 in March, got old. It happens. Look in the mirror.
There’s no mystery of why his quick, first step disappeared — at least not in the mysterious manner, say, the Heat’s 3-point shooting has disappeared this season. (Someone put out an all-points bulletin to find that. The Heat have shrunk from an NBA-best 37.9% from distance last season to a fourth-worst 33.6% this year.)
Lowry still has an occasional good game in him and could help organize the offense in an important playoff moment. His basketball mind hasn’t gone. His game just isn’t there night after night. That’s why he was removed from Heat’s fourth-quarter rotation.
He won’t be playing at all for the next three games, evidently to rest a balky knee. That’s another problem with age.
Lowry, to his credit, hasn’t complained about a downsized role. He can’t be happy about it and must be even unhappier at being caught by time. But if you want to put a positive light on it, his plight shows the Heat has grown up in some form.
Bam Adebayo is deservedly taking more shots. That took some from a guy like Lowry. Herro is featured in the fourth quarter. That lessened Lowry’s role until he was benched of late. That’s the natural order of sports, the young overtaking the old, and Lowry’s career-low numbers are evidence of that.
The Heat traded center Dewayne Dedmon and a second-round pick to San Antonio on Tuesday for salary-cap help. Lowry looks to be next at some point, and his bloated contract actually will facilitate a trade for a big star in return.
The NBA, of course, is full of bloated contracts. The Los Angeles Lakers’ Russell Westbrook makes $47 million and isn’t wanted. Cleveland’s Kevin Love makes $29 million and doesn’t play. Kyrie Irving makes $39 million and is on his way to ruining his fourth team. I’ll stop now before you get queasy.
Lowry’s time here hasn’t been what anyone hoped, but it hasn’t been a disaster. He was a hobbled part of the team that came within a basket of the NBA Finals last year. This year has yet to play out, even if it’s trending dismally down. He still has worth in being part of a big trade.
It’s hard to figure out NBA teams anymore, considering it’s a rare night when every player from both teams plays. That’s good news, perhaps, for a Heat team looking for consistency.
“What I see as the head coach right now in this league, in particular the Eastern Conference, I see great opportunity,’’ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Tuesday. “Whichever teams can figure it out these next two months can really get ready in the right way for the playoffs.”
Maybe the Heat trades Lowry by Thursday to help get right for the playoffs. Probably they hold onto him for to put into a bigger deal this summer. His value isn’t a scorer or defender anymore. At (almost) 37, it’s as a bookkeeping number.
