If these were normal times, the Toronto Raptors would probably be on the cusp of trading Kyle Lowry to a contender right about now. They’re 11th in the Eastern Conference, losers of five straight games, Lowry is a championship point guard who would make any team better and his contract is expiring.
Thing is, these are not normal times.
The Raptors have shown no desire to move Lowry, in part because they still very much remain in the playoff mix and soon they’ll get five players back after missing time for virus-related reasons. Pretty much every team, apologies to maybe Detroit and Minnesota, are also realistically in the postseason mix. Such is a byproduct of the new play-in round meaning that 10 teams from each conference will have games after the regular season ends this year, instead of the usual eight.
That means even the trade deadline might have a different feel this year — keeping with the theme of just about everything else in the league also changing this season, with a shorter schedule, barely any fans at games, testing multiple times a day and tons of rules designed to keep everyone safe.
