Kyle Lowry went down last season with an injury and Dragic played like an all-star. Now Lowry misses a bunch of games too and Calderon leads Toronto to 4 straight wins. Is it a coincidence? Can anyone with more insight share his thoughts? Should Lowry be starting on the bench?
I think is more of Bargnani being out. It's hard winning games consistently with a soft big. We will go in a run as well without our version of Barnagni too. patterson.
Its just the Calderon usual, only plays good when his position gets challenged. Gets signed a contract and then doesn't do jack **** again for the next season.
I still think Lowry is the better player. I'm chopping this up to 1. No Bargnani 2. Calderon playing hard to get a nice new contract before slacking off
They've won a bunch of home games against mostly crappy teams. Big deal. Lowry is the least of their problems.
This board overrates Lowry. He's quite good, borderline all-star in stretches, but he's not a difference maker. There's a reason why the Rockets were willing to part him so quickly when a nice pick is available. And before people dump on Calderon's record, their record with Lowry was 2-14. Worse than the team last year, and worse than their record without him this year.
Maybe Lowry's true value to a team is be their starter and then sit on the sideline to let the backup shine.
The problem is that Lowry's injury prone history is not solely due to bad luck. It's somewhat related to 1) his playing style (too reckless for such a small guy), 2) approach to the game (not being smart and often gets back from injury too soon) and 3) maybe fitness level (always looks kinda bulky and not in top physical condition).
I agree, wholeheartedly. Lowry is only a legend in the mind of some Clutch Fans' members. In reality, Lowry remains a very competitive above average NBA starting point guard who is not elite or even a perennial all-star quality. Moreover, Lowry is not leaps and bounds better than Calderon, in which their strengths and weaknesses more or less offset one another than a complete dwarfing of basketball skills that some Rocket fans claim Lowry to have. Calderon is a fantastic mid-range shooter and one of the superior passers in the game. Lowry is great at rebounding, good defender and good for second or third scoring option, but his game is not perfected and not anywhere near elite.
Calderon is earning 10 million dollars this year because he was putting up empty stats for one month. Now that his deal expires at the end of the season, he's pulling this crap again. There is no winning with Jose Calderon as your starting PG. He is too poor of a defender to compensate for whatever he does offensively. After missing the playoffs year after year after year, even in Leastern Conference where you have to be truly dreadful to not make it, the Raptors might finally be smart enough to realize this. Then again I highly doubt it. This is the same organization that made Calderon their highest-paid player to begin with.
Would you sign, say, Pablo Prigioni to $10 million / year and give him starter's minutes too? No? Then congratulations, you are not the Toronto Raptors.
What exactly has Lowry won in the NBA as a starting point guard? He's never been the best player on an NBA playoff team. Lowry has never had a noutstanding NBA season. Although, I believe Lowry is the better point guard, not by leaps and bounds. Besides, I doubt Calderon gets that much, again.
