Report: Houston Rockets Made A Run At Kyle Lowry At Trade Deadline
By Yoni Pollak
Nov 11, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry (7) dribbles the ball as Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin (7) defends during the fourth quarter at Toyota Center. The Rockets won 110-104. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, the Rockets made a run at Kyle Lowry this past trade deadline.
"Morey and McHale still felt strongly about Lowry and his talent, and made a bid at the trade deadline to bring him back to the Rockets, league sources said."
The Rockets only ended up trading for Jordan Hamilton, but this is just another one of the many reports that the Rockets made a run at different players in February.
Bringing in Kyle Lowry would have certainly been interesting. The soon-to-be 28-year old PG is having a remarkable year averaging 17.2 points, 7.9 assists and 4.7 rebounds a game. Lowry is one of the main reasons the Toronto Raptors are 37-29 this season and currently a three seed in the Eastern Conference.
If the Rockets really wanted Lowry, they would have likely dealt Jeremy Lin and another asset of some sort. Lowry will be a free agent this coming offseason and would have likely commanded over $10 million a season after this stellar season. Though Lowry is an upgrade, it would have been interesting to how Morey would have worked with that potential roster next season with Chandler Parsons’ contract not yet figured out, plus other big-time players expected to become free agents.
This is just another “what could have been” scenario for Rockets fans.
Wojnawroski’s report is part of a much larger article on Kyle Lowry’s transformation, but there are a lot of great nuggets at Lowry and how he fought with the new Houston coaches once Rick Adelman left town.
"Only Adelman left, and Lowry couldn’t get over it. He fought new coach Kevin McHale on everything – and relationships were even worse with the assistant coaches. Lowry lost his starting job and lost the clear-mindedness to lead the locker room.“He never gave the coaching staff a chance,” assistant coach Kelvin Sampson told Yahoo Sports. “He wouldn’t let Kevin coach him. Kyle’s greatest strength is the bulldog in him, and when that bulldog is channeled the in right direction, he’s tough to handle on the floor. And when it isn’t, he’s tough to handle everywhere else.”"
Lowry also apparently loved the analytics part of basketball and enjoyed sitting with Rockets GM Daryl Morey and then assistant GM Sam Hinkie (now GM of the Philadelphia 76’ers).
Only now that Lowry is away from Houston does he realize the mistake he made.
"“I would have done things differently in Houston,” Lowry says. “I really respected Kevin McHale. I wish I would have had an opportunity to play for him longer. The things he was teaching me, well, I didn’t understand right away. When you get away from someone, though, see it from the outside looking in, you go back and think, ‘Damn, I could’ve learned some more things from the guy.’“I wanted to stay with Coach Adelman and needed to get over that. [McHale] came in with a different philosophy, and I wish I could’ve adapted to it quicker.”"
Lowry is playing extremely well with the Toronto Raptors and will always be indirectly tied with this Rockets team. By trading Lowry a few season ago, the Rockets acquired the Toronto Raptors lottery pick which was eventually used to acquire James Harden. Once Harden was on board, that made Houston more “exciting” and helped bring Dwight Howard to town.
The rest is history.
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