Brian Windhorst, speaking on ESPN has once again reignited the Kyle Lowry to Miami rumours, this time in a sign-and-trade context:
The Heat should be able to open up somewhere in the neighbourhood of $7-8M of salary cap space so they can chase free-agents. Most likely their #1 choice will be Kyle Lowry, the unrestricted free agent of the Toronto Raptors.
When asked why Lowry would take less money since he hasn’t had his payday in the NBA yet, Windhorst responded:
Maybe the Heat could trade Norris Cole and open up an extra $2M (for Kyle Lowry)
From the article linked, Windhorst is explicitly saying that the Heat
The team is known to be interested in Toronto Raptors free agent point guard Kyle Lowry.
This report comes on the heels of Masai Ujiri publicly stating that the Raptors will be going “full force” after Kyle Lowry. Since the last time Windhorst spoke of this rumour, the Heat acquired Shabazz Napier on draft night through trade with the Charlotte Hornets, which you would think would ease the Lowry speculation.
Whatever the case, with LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Udonis Haslem opting out of their contracts, the Heat have an NBA-record $55 million available in cap space to play with, and Lowry could quite easily be their primary target. As an FYI, a similar rumour (actually, a more brazen one) was circulated by Ric Bucher before apologizing.
The Raptors tried to get some insurance on draft night through Tyler Ennis but were unable to do so. Keep in mind, though, that the Suns still have two point guards on their roster in Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic, so the final shoe may yet be dropped.
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