Will Kyle Lowry be on this roster by next season?

It was reported that the Heat could explore waiving/stretching Lowry and his contract to open up financial flexibility.

Kyle Lowry has had an up and down tenure in Miami. Signed in the summer of 2021 to a near 29$ million contract per season for three years, he has fell well short of production for that price line.

The Miami Heat expected Toronto Raptors Kyle Lowry when they acquired him. In his last season in Toronto at the age of 34, he had averages of 17.2 ppg, 7.3 apg and 5.4 rpg on 44% shooting and 40% from 3 point range.

Almost every single one of his averages have fell off from that stat line just one season prior to arriving here.

Last year he had arguably his worst statistical season since his rookie year. In the 2022-2023 season for the Heat, he averaged just 11.2 ppg, 5.1 apg and 4.1 rpg on 40% shooting and 35% from 3.

Lowry has had 2 straight injury riddled seasons in Miami. This season, the guard was out for an extended period of time and shut down by the team due to knee problems. During that time, Gabe Vincent stepped up as the starting PG and he ran with that role.

Vincent’s durability and two-way presence helped keep that starting spot for the long run and deep into the playoffs, demoting Lowry to a now permanent bench role.

The season prior, Lowry did a pretty solid job at running the point as a starter for Miami. He helped lead the team to the number 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and his playmaking was a force.

Sadly, he went down with a hamstring injury in the playoffs and besides one single vintage Lowry performance in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston, he struggled heavily.

He was rumored to be involved in trade talks at this year’s deadline, but nobody was willing to take on that contract.

Lowry played pretty good in a bench role to end this season, and had a great attitude and displayed professionalism all throughout that new role for him.

Having a veteran PG like himself leading the second unit is a great thing to have on the team. The problem though is that nobody should be making 29$ million a year to play off the bench (maybe unless it is an elite 6MOTY option).

Lowry was far from playing bad in this playoff run, he had some key moments and displayed lots of energy and effort.

It’s simply just not ideal to have such a huge All-Star level contract being paid to an older PG that’s only getting around 20 minutes of playing time a night off the bench.

Kyle Lowry is a champion, former All-Star and proven to be an exceptional personality to have in the locker room. He also has an extremely close relationship with Jimmy Butler.

However, the NBA is a business, and a team that is trying to compete for a title just can’t be investing 29$ million to a near 37 year old bench player.

It was reported by Barry Jackson that if the Miami Heat are unable to find a trade partner for Lowry, the team could consider waiving/stretching him and his large contract.

It could make more sense financially to just let the Lowry contract expire after this upcoming season, as he is going into the 3rd and final year of his deal.

Exploring the opportunity to waive him though could bring more financial flexibility right now to be able to retool and bring in some new pieces.

This Heat team was an 8 seed that reached the NBA Finals, taking down some tough squads in the process.

They did things this year that nobody expected them to do. Obviously the Heat would love to bring in another superstar to compliment Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, but just a few subtle moves or upgrades could be enough to finally get over the hump and win it all.

Having Lowry’s contract off the table can help make that happen.

It will be interesting to see how everything plays out, but this is something that is definitely worth having a conversation about within Pat Riley and the front office.