The Los Angeles Clippers never held serious talks on a trade for Miami Heat point guard Kyle Lowry, according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
Los Angeles made a handful of deals ahead of the trade deadline on Thursday, but the team wasn’t able to land one of the big-name point guards on the market. The Clippers couldn’t put together a package with the Toronto Raptors for Fred VanVleet and weren’t interested in a couple of the other guards that were available.
“The Clippers exchanged Reggie Jackson, John Wall, and Kennard for Bones Hyland, Eric Gordon, and Mason Plumlee,” Lowe wrote. “They got nowhere close on Fred VanVleet, sources said; the Raptors would have required Terance Mann and maybe more draft equity than the Clippers can offer. They never had serious talks on D’Angelo Russell or Kyle Lowry, sources said. They waded into the Mike Conley sweepstakes, but it escalated out of their price range. They are better and more versatile than they were yesterday, but it’s not clear by how much.”
The Heat ended up holding onto Lowry through the deadline, and they are surely hoping he will be able to contribute once he heals from a knee injury that has kept him out of the lineup recently.
Miami has Lowry under contract for the remainder of the 2022-23 season and next season, but the team has seen Gabe Vincent step up and play well when the veteran has been out of the lineup.
This season has been a tough one for Lowry, as he’s really struggling with his jumper. The six-time All-Star is shooting his worst percentage from beyond the arc since the 2009-10 season.
That’s become a bit of a problem for Miami, as Lowry was expected to elevate the team’s offense when he was acquired in a sign-and-trade deal with Toronto prior to the start of the 2021-22 regular season.
Instead, Lowry is having one of the worst offensive seasons of his career in just his second year with Miami. The veteran guard is averaging 12.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 39.6 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3-point range.
The Clippers, led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, clearly view themselves as contenders this season. They added a bunch of solid role players, but it is telling that they didn’t want to make a move for Lowry and take on his salary for the next two seasons.
The Heat are hoping that Lowry can find his All-Star form once again as they look to make a run in the Eastern Conference for the second straight season.
