Report: Mavericks to pursue Kyle Lowry in free agency

The Dallas Mavericks are expected to pursue PG Kyle Lowry when free agency opens next week, Marc Stein reported on Tuesday afternoon. The Mavericks are also going to try and re-sign veteran wing Tim Hardaway Jr., who is expected to hit the open market along with Lowry. Dallas will look to add another option behind Luka Doncic this offseason in its quest to return to contender status.

Lowry is coming off a one-year contract with the Toronto Raptors, who opted not to deal the veteran PG before the trade deadline during the regular season. As a result, the team will now likely lose Lowry for nothing in free agency. It will be interesting to see what Lowry’s next contract looks like. He had signed a 3-year, $90M extension with Toronto before tacking on another year for 2020-21.

Ideally, the Mavericks sign Lowry to a short-term deal, something around 2-3 years. Doncic will be eligible for an extension this offseason and will likely command the super max. That will take up a very large portion of the cap, though Mark Cuban probably doesn’t mind dipping into the luxury tax if it means building another championship team.

The addition of Lowry would take some pressure off of Doncic. Lowry would be able to run the offense with Doncic off the court and can also play off the ball quite a bit. The Raptors used to run a back court of Lowry and Fred VanVleet, essentially two combo guards.

Lowry only played 46 games in 2020-21, averaging around 17 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds. He shot around 40 percent from distance on 7.2 attempts. In the event he ends up on Dallas, Lowry would probably see less usage and shot attempts, but that may only help improve his numbers from 3-point range. The Mavs need to surround Doncic with as much shooting as possible to space the floor. Lowry provides that as well as veteran leadership from a championship PG.