Why the Heat should pursue Kyle Lowry instead of Carmelo Anthony
Reports that the Miami Heat might be interested in finding a way to accommodate Carmelo Anthony this summer have taken over the NBA news cycle. Imagine the possibilities. One of the greatest players of all time and the undisputed best player alive today - LeBron James - surrounded by a recent scoring champion and superstar scorer in Carmelo Anthony, an aging superstar in Dwyane Wade, and a likely Hall of Famer in Chris Bosh.
We’ve already seen how the James/Wade/Bosh trio has succeeded with four straight Finals trips and back-to-back championships. Add another star to the mix, in the weak Eastern Conference no less, and you can just about pencil Miami into the Finals for the foreseeable future barring a couple of devastating injuries.
The speculation remains just that for now - speculation - and the Heat would have to get ultra creative with their salary cap machinations to bring in another player of Melo’s quality, while the team’s current Big Three take pay cuts. In addition, while adding another prolific scorer to the mix would make the Heat even more unguardable than they already appear, inserting Anthony into the lineup wouldn’t address any area of concern for Miami.
The Heat scored an electric 109 points per 100 possessions during the regular season, which placed them in a tie with Dallas for second, behind the Clippers’ 109.4 mark. It was the second straight season that the Heat ranked in the top two offensively, and the third time in four years of The Big Three Era that their offense ranked top-three.
The defensive end, on the other hand, saw some slippage in 2013-14. By allowing 102.9 points per 100 possessions, the Heat fell out of the top-10 on that end of the court, settling for 11th. During the postseason, their defense looked disturbingly mortal at times against the lesser offenses of Indiana, Brooklyn, and Charlotte. And as has been referenced many times during this year’s Finals, especially following San Antonio’s offensive excellence in Game 3, no team has won a championship with a sub-top-10 defense in 13 years (2001 Lakers).
The only way Anthony is going to move the needle on defense is the wrong way, and when you consider that soon-to-be free agent Mario Chalmers can be upgraded at point guard, perhaps there is another free agent target the Heat should be discussing. Enter Kyle Lowry.
Lowry carries nowhere near the same name cache or star appeal as Anthony. He’s never won a scoring title, has never made an All-Star game - though his exclusion this season was egregious - and he wasn’t even considered a surefire competent starter until this year. But what a year he had.
Lowry averaged 17.9 points, 7.4 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals and a Player Efficiency Rating of 20.1 while leading the Raptors to a franchise record 48 wins. He finished top-10 in both Basketball Reference’s Win Shares and ESPN’s Wins Above Replacement. No one would have batted an eye if Lowry had made an All-NBA or All-Defensive team. He was that good.
He’s an All-Star quality point guard in the prime of his career at 28-years-old, will command a much smaller pay day than Anthony, can take some of the mammoth workload off of LeBron given that he can competently run an offense, and he defends as well as almost anyone at his position. The most important part, of course, is that he’s an unrestricted free agent as of July 1.
After a stellar season for both player and team that saw Lowry grow seemingly just as fond of Toronto as Toronto was of him, the Raptors are considered favorites to retain his services, with only a few teams with both cap space and a need for a point guard seen as threats. Buf if the Heat were interested and the money was right, you’d have to imagine virtually any player in the NBA would listen.
At this point no one even knows whether Carmelo Anthony is really in the cards for the Heat, whether LeBron James and co. would really sacrifice money again to welcome in another star, or whether Anthony is even interested in being a No. 2-No. 4 option in Miami as opposed to 'The Guy' in The Basketball Mecca.
But if the Heat are thinking about getting creative in free agency come July, and if The Big Three really are willing to make financial concessions to welcome in another star player, then perhaps it’s Lowry they should be looking at.