Toronto Raptors: Is It DeMar DeRozan’s or Kyle Lowry’s Team?

A page may be turning in the DeRozan-Lowry chapter of the Toronto Raptors franchise.

DeMar DeRozan is officially the highest paid player on the Toronto Raptors, as a result of his recently signed five year, $139 million dollar contract. That sort of deal brings on a set of unwritten expectations, the prevailing one being leadership.

Leadership plays a pivotal role in each NBA team. Leaders offer guidance to the rookies on the roster, but also hold the burden of challenging members of their team to be the best they can possibly be — whether that be by example or vocal message.

Last year, there was no question the leader of the team was Kyle Lowry. All players say they want to win, but typically they want to win under their terms — Lowry has defied this trapping.

Related Story: Was Mike Krzyzewski Right to Call Out Kyle Lowry?

Known as a ‘bulldog’, Lowry was scrappy and aggressive but was overweight. Willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win, he cut his weight by 15 pounds, from 210 to 195.

With Skinny Lowry in the best shape of his life, he made a second straight All-Star appearance and a USA national team selection. In the process, he showed the rest of the league his 2014-15 campaign was not a flash in the pan.

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For the past two years Lowry has been the Raptors best player, leading them into the playoffs in each campaign. In the 2015-16 season he posted a stat line of 21.2 points, 6.4 assists, and 4.7 rebounds, while shooting 42.7 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from three-point range.

Gargantuan statistics for a player so small, but you can’t expect those numbers to continue long-term. Lowry turned 30 this past March, typically the inflection point for a player’s career leading into decline.

With Lowry playing such a physical style of basketball, the decline could easily be sharper than most would think. Your feet move slower, your jump is lower, the bumps hurt more, and being jostled around the rim effects your shot more than it ever used to.

DeRozan will be 27 in August and his play turned a corner last season. He had the best campaign of his career, with a line of 23.5 points, four assists and four rebounds, in addition to shooting 45 percent from the field.

The Compton, California native was an All-Star for the second time in his career and has also been selected to represent USA on their national basketball team. He will officially be in his prime when the 2016-17 season starts and he will be looking to build on his past success.

DeRozan was drafted by the Raptors as an athletic project, with potential to develop into something special. Each year he’s come closer to fulfilling that potential, both on the court and within the city.

Players drafted by the Raptors usually don’t stick with them. After Vince Carter left, they became a team nobody considered or wanted to be a part of until Chris Bosh arrived, and when he departed, it became more of the same.

Toronto was a place nobody wanted to play in, other than to rehab their value and then leave. DeRozan has defied the trope by backing up his claim, when Bosh left for the Miami Heat.

DeRozan re-signed with the Raptors this summer for the next five years, citing legacy as his main reason for staying. Playing for the same team for your entire career is the biggest honor in his eyes and he continues to take steps to ensure his number will eventually hang in the rafters of the Air Canada Centre.

In past years, DeRozan has been a self-admitted laid back player, known to not speak up and “take what we have and run with it.” When the season is over, he crawls back into his shell and focuses on himself and what he can personally do to make the team better.

This is no longer the case. DeMarre Carroll has mentioned that DeRozan is not only making sure his voice is heard, he’s also making it out to summer league to see teammates play and has been talking to Masai Ujiri about player movement.

Role players and rookies don’t take such measures to make their presence felt within the team. That’s only what franchise cornerstones do, like Lowry… and now DeRozan.

Lowry has a player option to cut off his contract at the end of the 2016-17 season. Even with a likely production decline next year, he’s still too good for the $12 million promised in the 2017-18 campaign, so he will almost certainly opt-out.

The salary cap will escalate again next year and Lowry will be looking to cash in on what will be the best three-year stretch of his career. Ujiri is an astute contract negotiator and will be privy to the career arc of NBA players, especially small physical guards.

Contract negotiations could get a little dicey, but it’s not about the money – it’s the years. Lowry will be 31, both he and Ujiri know his production will decline and will be approaching the negotiating table with very different ideas in mind.

Lowry and DeRozan may be best friends, but that didn’t stop LeBron James from leaving Dwyane Wade and the Heat. There is going to have to be a compromise both ways, because Lowry will be a hot commodity next year and the Raptors are not the only team that can afford him.

Next: Raptors Podcast: Jarrod Uthoff, DeMarre Carroll and DeMar DeRozan

So, don’t be surprised to hear teammates saying DeRozan is speaking out more and having more influence over the team in general. A page could be turning in the DeRozan-Lowry chapter of the Raptors franchise.